Quick evaluation and regulation of the maximum instantaneous power and matching resistance for droplet-based electricity generators

Abstract

Droplet-based electricity generators (DEGs) leveraging triboelectric effects are simple and high-performance devices for harvesting energy from ubiquitous water droplets. Instantaneous power plays a vital role in wide applications of DEGs. However, the governing law of the maximum instantaneous power and matching resistance is lacking and their determination suffers from heavy repetitive experiments, hindering the development of DEGs. Herein, we propose a quick evaluation method for the internal droplet impedance, instantaneous peak power, maximum instantaneous power and matching resistance which exhibits broad universality and excellent accuracy. Moreover, effects of diverse factors pertaining to droplets and devices are fully investigated, highlighting that the maximum instantaneous power and matching resistance can be effectively regulated across multiple orders of magnitudes by controlling the salt concentration. Our findings shed insights into the understanding, evaluation, and regulation of instantaneous power for DEGs, and shall promote the renovation of the DEG technology.