Is tribo-electric the new clean energy solution?

Photo: Studio Rosegaarde/Wikimedia Commons

From eco-dancefloors to ocean waves: Wherever there is movement, there is energy.

From energy-generating nightclubs to a T-shirt that charges your phone, there are many intriguing concepts for harnessing everyday movement, and even sound, to generate electricity. Until now, most of those concepts have used piezoelectric technology, meaning that as mechanical stress is placed on certain materials, they generate a small electronic charge. The key word here, however, is small. While piezoelectric generation may have potential for small-scale charging of gadgets and other low-energy devices, it holds little potential for larger scale deployment

EarthTechling reports, however, on research lead by Zhong Lin Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, into “tribo-electric” energy generation. Deriving from the Greek for “rub,” tribo-electric generation works based on the friction created when two materials rub together. (The electric shock you get when you pick your kid up off a slide in the playground is an example of tribo-electric power.)

According to Wang, tribo-electric technology may eventually provide the means to generate much larger amounts of electricity from a broader range of sources including waves, walking, urban traffic and even, potentially, rainfall. Wang’s team has developed a prototype generator which, they say, solves many of the challenges of turning random, sometimes unpredictable movement into usable power.

Here’s how Earthtechling describes the set up:

Their prototype comprises a disc about 10 centimetres (four inches) across, designed to show the potential from a small, portable generator moved by ambient energy. Inside are two circular sheets of material, one an electron “donor” and the other an electron “receiver,” brought together through rotary movement. If the sheets are separated, one then holds an electrical charge isolated by the gap between them.

The Latest on: Tribo-electric

Leading blue energy revolution - EurekAlert
March 18, 2021
New Triboelectric Nanogenerator to Efficiently Harness Ocean Wave Energy - AZoCleantech
March 19, 2021
Novel Thermal Power Generator Converts Thermal Energy into Electric Energy - AZoM
March 25, 2021
Bioinspired mechano-photonic artificial synapse based on graphene/MoS2 heterostructure - Science Advances
March 17, 2021
CUHK team develops water-based TENG | The Engineer The Engineer - The Engineer
March 22, 2021
Thermal power nanogenerator created without solid moving parts - EurekAlert
March 31, 2021
Researchers harvest energy from radio waves to power wearable devices | Penn State University - Penn State News
March 25, 2021
Scientists propose highly reliable thermal power generator - Phys.org
March 26, 2021
Researchers Create A Wearable Microgrid That Is Powered By Your Sweat - Forbes
April 12, 2021
A bio-inspired mechano-photonic artificial synapse - Phys.org
March 26, 2021

via Google News

The Latest on: Tribo-electric

Latest from Power Management
on April 11, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Researchers at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology are harvesting energy using triboelectric effect technology, or contact electrification.
Paper Keyboard Is Self-Powered
on April 10, 2021 at 4:59 pm
Special inks print triboelectric circuits so that pressing your finger on a particular part of the paper generates electricity. We were skeptical that the Bluetooth part is self-powered ...
A First-Principles Study of Electro-Mechanical Coupling in Triboelectric Nanogenerators
on April 6, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Thus, a complete and integrated project consisting of experiments, theory and simulations will be presented for triboelectrification and triboelectric nanogenerators.
Haptic-feedback smart glove as a creative human-machine interface (HMI) for virtual/augmented reality applications
on April 5, 2021 at 5:00 pm
We propose the haptic-feedback smart glove with triboelectric-based finger bending sensors, palm sliding sensor, and piezoelectric mechanical stimulators. The detection of multidirectional bending and ...
Focus of studies on optimally utilizing solar energy to bring transformation across the globe
on March 30, 2021 at 3:10 am
One of the research studies that would help in utilizing the solar energy optimally is a snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator, which can help in providing uninterrupted power supply to solar ...
News tagged with triboelectric nanogenerator
on March 29, 2021 at 7:39 am
Multifunctional and diverse artificial neural systems can incorporate multimodal plasticity, memory and supervised learning functions to assist neuromorphic computation. In a new report, Jinran Yu ...
Scientists propose highly reliable thermal power generator
on March 25, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Chinese scientists have proposed a highly reliable thermal power generator by combining thermoacoustic effect and triboelectric effect. The latest research, published online in Applied Physics ...
CUHK team develops water-based TENG
on March 21, 2021 at 6:33 pm
Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have developed a water-tube-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for energy harvesting. Multiple small WT-TENG units can be easily ...
A triboelectric nanogenerator for efficient ocean wave energy harvesting
on March 18, 2021 at 7:52 am
The nanogenerator, including piezoelectric, triboelectric, and pyroelectric nanogenerators, is one of the key technologies for mechanical energy conversion. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) ...
Leading blue energy revolution
on March 18, 2021 at 7:27 am
The nanogenerator, including piezoelectric, triboelectric, and pyroelectric nanogenerators, is one of the key technologies for mechanical energy conversion. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG ...