The d-arched piezoelectric-triboelectric hybrid nanogenerator as a self-powered vibration sensor

• Published in: Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. Vol. 263; pp. 317 - 325
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jie, Hou, Xiaojuan, Niu, Xushi, Guo, Xuepei, Zhang, Jing, He, Jian, Guo, Tao, Chou, Xiujian, Xue, Chenyang, Zhang, Wendong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 15-08-2017; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Acceleration; d-Arched hybrid structure; Design optimization; Electric potential; Energy harvesting; Linearity; Nanogenerators; Piezoelectric nanogenerator; Piezoelectricity; Power supplies; Power supply; Self-powered sensor; Sensitivity; Sensors; Structural design; Triboelectric nanogenerator; Vibration measurement; Triboelectric nanogenerator; Self-powered sensor; d-Arched hybrid structure; Piezoelectric nanogenerator
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2017.06.012
• EISSN: 1873-3069
• ISSN: 0924-4247

•A d-arched self-powered sensor consisting of piezoelectric-triboelectric energy harvesting unit is presented.•The d-arched sensor with middle shared electrode can increase sensitivity and measuring range.•The PET film not only plays a supporting role but also increases the output performance of the piezoelectric layer.•Owing to micro-structural design of silicon rubber surface, the output performances of the triboelectric NG improved.•The d-arched self-powered sensor can be miniaturized and easily integrated to other devices.
With the rapid development of traditional sensors, the long-time reliable power supply has been one of the severe problems to restrict the sensors’ wide applications in daily life. Here, this paper presents a d-arched sensor consisting of piezoelectric-triboelectric energy harvesting unit, which can be treated as a real-time self-powered vibration sensor which can simultaneously convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The d-arched sensor with middle shared electrode based on piezoelectric-triboelectric hybrid mechanisms can increase sensitivity and measuring range through improving the corresponding output voltage and current performance. After surface micro-nano structural design and size optimization, the E-piezoelectric output voltage and current increase by 25% and 42.6% at a frequency of 10Hz and mechanical force of 5N, correspondingly, the E-triboelectric output voltage and current increase by 21.9% and 69.3%, respectively. Moreover, the d-arched hybrid nanogenerator (NG) as a sensor presents that the sensitivities of the sensor are 3.65μW/g and 6.14μW/g under the vibration amplitude of 3mm and 6mm, accordingly the linearity errors of the sensor are 4.23% and 5.12% under the vibration amplitude of 3mm and 6mm, respectively. The measurement demonstrates that a good linearity between the E-piezoelectric output power and the acceleration of vibration. Therefore, it is evident that the d-arched hybrid NG can be used as a vibration sensor.