A triboelectric/electromagnetic hybrid generator for efficient wind energy collection and power supply for electronic devices

Abstract

Harvesting energy from ambient environment has been considered as a promising strategy for driving portable electronic devices in a sustainable way. A wind driven triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid nanogenerator has been fabricated to convert wind energy into electricity. It is composed of an electromagnetic generator (EMG) and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with the output power of 35 and 0.32 mW, respectively when the wind speed is 5 m/s. Generally, TENG shows a low current output with a high voltage output characteristic, on the contrary the EMG shows a high current output and a low voltage output. This hybrid nanogenerator overcomes these problems and exhibits comprehensive and efficient performance on scavenging energy. Moreover, in view of the output performance and charging ability of the hybrid nanogenerator, it shows high stability, making it suitable for charging capacitors or batteries and driving portable electronics sustainably. A new structure of integrated TENG and EMG was designed to harvest wind energy, which shows potential applications in portable and small device power supply system, especially in the areas of remote mountains, deserts, islands, etc., as emergency power supply.