A collision-free gallop-based triboelectric-piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator

Energy harvesting technologies that convert fluid energy into usable electrical energy are of great significance, especially in long-distance pipeline systems. Here, in order to avoid the collision of conventional galloping triboelectric nanogenerators (GTENGs), and cause material damage or noise, a freestanding gallop-based triboelectric-piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator (HG P-TENG) is proposed to reduce material wear and improve the reliability of GTENG. Two piezoelectric sheets are attached to the cantilever beam. The root-mean-square (RMS) and peak output power of the HG P-TENG are 68.9 μW and 1.27 mW, respectively. To improve the harvesting efficiency, the fixed copper electrodes are segmented, and experiments indicate that this way of segmenting electrodes can improve the energy harvesting efficiency. Finer electrodes can effectively increase the charging rate of capacitors. A self-powered thermohygrometer and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are demonstrated in the wind tunnel. It demonstrates that the proposed hybrid nanogenerator will exhibit great potential in pipeline systems.