Triboelectric Nanogenerator-Based Self-Powered Resonant Sensor for Non-Destructive Defect Detection

A triboelectric nanogenerator-based self-powered resonant sensor is proposed and investigated. By integrating an inductor and a microswitch with a triboelectric nanogenerator, a new type triboelectric nanogenerator is obtained, the pulse voltage output is converted to an oscillating signal with a very stable modulated resonant frequency, immune to the cross disturbance of contact-related variation (force, frequency, distance) and environmental variation, such as humidity and temperature. This is utilized for non-destructive defect detection. When the coil inductor scans the surface of a specimen with defects, varying resonant frequencies are obtained for different types of defects, showing excellent consistency between the experimental and simulated results. The results demonstrate the potential of the self-powered TENG-based resonant sensor to be a highly stable and sensitive magnetic sensor for the non-destructive defect detection applications.