Triboelectric Nanogenerators as a Practical Approach for Wind Energy Harvesting: Mechanisms, Designs, and Applications

Abstract

Constructing self-powered sensors or systems is an effective method to meet the power consumption requirements of millions and billions of distributed electronic devices. As a ubiquitous, clean, and renewable energy source, wind energy plays an important role in power supply. Compared with traditional wind electromagnetic generators, wind triboelectric nanogenerator (wind-TENG) has unique advantages such as lightweight, low cost, and low start-up wind speed, which are more suitable for driving the above-mentioned distributed electronic devices. In this review, the recent progress of wind-TENG from basic working principles to practical applications is systematically summarized. First, the recent progress of wind-TENG in terms of structural design and start-up wind speed is reviewed. Subsequently, the power management principle as well as the related circuit design of the wind-TENG are introduced. Furthermore, the development of self-powered systems based on wind-TENG in agriculture, transportation, and environment monitoring fields is reviewed. Finally, some perspectives and challenges for the future development of wind-TENG are also discussed.