Floating Oscillator-Embedded Triboelectric Generator for Versatile Mechanical Energy Harvesting

A versatile vibration energy harvesting platform based on a triboelectricity is proposed and analyzed. External mechanical vibration repeats an oscillating motion of a polymer-coated metal oscillator floating inside a surrounding tube. Continuous sidewall friction at the contact interface of the oscillator induces current between the inner oscillator electrode and the outer tube electrode to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical energy. The floating oscillator-embedded triboelectric generator (FO-TEG) is applicable for both impulse excitation and sinusoidal vibration which universally exist in usual environment. For the impulse excitation, the generated current sustains and slowly decays by the residual oscillation of the floating oscillator. For the sinusoidal vibration, the output energy can be maximized by resonance oscillation. The operating frequency range can be simply optimized with high degree of freedom to satisfy various application requirements. In addition, the excellent immunity against ambient humidity is experimentally demonstrated, which stems from the inherently packaged structure of FO-TEG. The prototype device provides a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 157 V and instantaneous short-circuit current of 4.6 μA, within sub-10 Hz of operating frequency. To visually demonstrate the energy harvesting behavior of FO-TEG, lighting of an array of LEDs is demonstrated using artificial vibration and human running.