School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0245, United States.
Nano Lett. 2012 Sep 12;12(9):4960-5. doi: 10.1021/nl302560k. Epub 2012 Aug 15.
By converting ambient energy into electricity, energy harvesting is capable of at least offsetting, or even replacing, the reliance of small portable electronics on traditional power supplies, such as batteries. Here we demonstrate a novel and simple generator with extremely low cost for efficiently harvesting mechanical energy that is typically present in the form of vibrations and random displacements/deformation. Owing to the coupling of contact charging and electrostatic induction, electric generation was achieved with a cycled process of contact and separation between two polymer films. A detailed theory is developed for understanding the proposed mechanism. The instantaneous electric power density reached as high as 31.2 mW/cm(3) at a maximum open circuit voltage of 110 V. Furthermore, the generator was successfully used without electric storage as a direct power source for pulse electrodeposition (PED) of micro/nanocrystalline silver structure. The cathodic current efficiency reached up to 86.6%. Not only does this work present a new type of generator that is featured by simple fabrication, large electric output, excellent robustness, and extremely low cost, but also extends the application of energy-harvesting technology to the field of electrochemistry with further utilizations including, but not limited to, pollutant degradation, corrosion protection, and water splitting.
通过将环境能量转换为电能，能量收集至少可以抵消，甚至可以取代小型便携式电子产品对传统电源（例如电池）的依赖。在这里，我们展示了一种新颖且简单的低成本发电机，可有效地收集通常以振动和随机位移/变形形式存在的机械能。由于接触充电和静电感应的耦合，通过两个聚合物薄膜之间的接触和分离的循环过程实现了发电。提出了一种用于理解所提出的机制的详细理论。瞬时功率密度高达 31.2 mW/cm³，开路电压最高可达 110 V。此外，该发电机无需储能即可直接用作微/纳晶硅银结构的脉冲电沉积（PED）的电源。阴极电流效率高达 86.6％。这项工作不仅提出了一种新型发电机，其特点是制造简单、发电量大、耐用性强且成本极低，而且还将能量收集技术的应用扩展到电化学领域，进一步的应用包括但不限于污染物降解、腐蚀防护和水分解。
