Application of Triboelectric Nanogenerator in Fluid Dynamics Sensing: Past and Future

The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) developed by Z. L. Wang’s team to harvest random mechanical energy is a promising new energy source for distributed sensing systems in the new era of the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for a smart world. TENG has many advantages that make it suitable for a wide range of applications, including energy harvesting, environmental protection, wearable electronics, robotics, and self-powered sensors. Sensing as an important part of TENG applications is gradually expanding, with the in-depth study of TENG sensing in its working principle, material selection, processing technology, system integration, surface treatment, and back-end algorithms by researchers. In industry and academia, fluid dynamics sensing for liquid and air is urgently needed but lacking. In particular, local fluid sensing is difficult and limited to traditional sensors. Fortunately, with advantages for ordinary TENGs and TENGs as fluid dynamics sensors, fluid dynamics sensing can be better realized. Therefore, the paper summarizes the up-to-date work on TENGs as fluid dynamics sensors, discusses the advantages of TENGs as fluid dynamics sensors in-depth, and, most importantly, aims to explore possible new key areas to help guide the future direction of TENG in fluid dynamics sensing by addressing the key challenges.