A Single-Droplet Electricity Generator Achieves an Ultrahigh Output Over 100 V Without Pre-Charging

Qi Zhang; Yahui Li; Han Cai; Mingfang Yao; Haodong Zhang; Linqi Guo; Zhenjie Lv; Mengqiu Li; Xichi Lu; Chao Ren; Penglei Zhang; Yanxin Zhang; Xian Shi; Guifu Ding; Jinyuan Yao; Zhuoqing Yang; Zhong Lin Wang

doi:10.1002/adma.202105761

A Single-Droplet Electricity Generator Achieves an Ultrahigh Output Over 100 V Without Pre-Charging

Adv Mater. 2021 Dec;33(51):e2105761. doi: 10.1002/adma.202105761. Epub 2021 Oct 15.

Authors

Qi Zhang^{1

2}, Yahui Li^{1

2}, Han Cai^{1

2}, Mingfang Yao³, Haodong Zhang^{1

2}, Linqi Guo^{1

2}, Zhenjie Lv^{1

2}, Mengqiu Li^{1

2}, Xichi Lu^{1

2}, Chao Ren^{1

2}, Penglei Zhang^{1

2}, Yanxin Zhang^{1

2}, Xian Shi^{1

2}, Guifu Ding¹, Jinyuan Yao¹, Zhuoqing Yang¹, Zhong Lin Wang^{4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
² Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
³ Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 1A1, Canada.
⁴ CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, China.
⁵ CUSTech Institute, Wenzhou, 325024, China.
⁶ School of Material Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0245, USA.

PMID: 34655116
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202105761

Abstract

The working principle of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), contact electrification and electrostatic induction, has been used to harvest raindrop energy in recent years. However, the existing research is mainly concentrated on solid-liquid electrification, and adopts traditional electrostatic induction (TEI) for output. As a result, the efficiency of droplet electricity generators (DEGs) is severely constrained. Therefore, previous studies deem that the DEG output is limited by interfacial effects. This study reveals that this view is inappropriate and, in reality, the output strategy is the key bottleneck restricting the DEG performance. Here, a switch effect based on an electric-double-layer capacitor (EDLC) is introduced, and an equivalent circuit model is established to understand its working mechanism. Without pre-charging, a single droplet can generate high voltage over 100 V and the output is directly improved by two-orders of magnitude compared with TEI, which is precisely utilizing the interfacial effect. This work provides insightful perspective and lays solid foundation for DEG applications in large scale.

Keywords: droplet electricity generators; electric-double-layer capacitors; equivalent circuit model; interfacial effects; switch effects.

Abstract

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