Ball-Mill-Inspired Durable Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Wind Energy Collecting and Speed Monitoring

Triboelectric nanogenerators have attracted extensive attention in energy harvesting due to its light weight, low cost, high flexibility, and diversity of function. However, deterioration in terms of mechanical durability and electrical stability of the triboelectric interface during operation, which are the results of material abrasion, severely limits their practical applications. In this paper, a durable triboelectric nanogenerator inspired by a ball mill was designed by using metal balls in hollow drums as carriers for charge generation and transfer. Composite nanofibers were deposited onto the balls, increasing the triboelectrification with the interdigital electrodes in the inner surface of the drum for higher output and electrostatic repulsion to each other for lower wear. Such a rolling design cannot only increase mechanical durability and maintenance convenience, where the filler can be easily replaced and recycled but also collect wind power with the decreased wearing of materials and sound efficiency in comparison with the typical rotation TENG. In addition, the short circuit current shows a strong linear relationship with the rotation speed in a wide range, which can be used to detect wind speed, thus showing potential applications in distributed energy conversion and self-powered environmental monitoring systems.