Rotary Wind-driven Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self-Powered Airflow Temperature Monitoring of Industrial Equipment.

Heat dissipation performance is crucial for the operational reliability of industrial equipment, which can be monitored by detecting the wind or airflow temperature of the radiator. The emergence of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) provides new routes for wind energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. Herein, a rotary wind-driven triboelectric nanogenerator (RW-TENG) with soft-contact working mode is newly designed to achieve tunable contact areas by utilizing the reliable thermal response of NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) to air/wind temperature. The RW-TENG can generate different triboelectric outputs under air stimulation with different speeds or temperatures, which is demonstrated as a power source for online monitoring sensors, self-powered wind speed sensing, and airflow temperature monitoring. Specifically, a self-powered sensor of wind speed is demonstrated with a sensitivity of 0.526 µA m-1 s between 2.2 and 19.6 m s-1, and a self-powered monitoring device of high airflow temperature, which show relatively short response time (109 s), strong anti-interference ability and outstanding long-term durability. This study introduces an innovative route for real-time detection of airflow temperature in wind-cooled industrial equipment, showing broad application prospects for information perception and intelligent sensing of the industrial IoTs.

Advanced Dielectric Materials for Triboelectric Nanogenerators: Principles, Methods, and Applications.

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) manifests distinct advantages such as multiple structural selectivity, diverse selection of materials, environmental adaptability, low cost, and remarkable conversion efficiency, which becomes a promising technology for micro-nano energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. Tribo-dielectric materials are the fundamental and core components for high-performance TENGs. In particular, the charge generation, dissipation, storage, migration of the dielectrics, and dynamic equilibrium behaviors determine the overall performance. Herein, a comprehensive summary is presented to elucidate the dielectric charge transport mechanism and tribo-dielectric material modification principle toward high-performance TENGs. The contact electrification and charge transport mechanism of dielectric materials is started first, followed by introducing the basic principle and dielectric materials of TENGs. Subsequently, modification mechanisms and strategies for high-performance tribo-dielectric materials are highlighted regarding physical/chemical, surface/bulk, dielectric coupling, and structure optimization. Furthermore, representative applications of dielectric materials based TENGs as power sources, self-powered sensors are demonstrated. The existing challenges and promising potential opportunities for advanced tribo-dielectric materials are outlined, guiding the design, fabrication, and applications of tribo-dielectric materials.