Triboelectric generators (tribo means friction) are devices that generate current electricity from static electricity.
Most people are familiar with “static” electricity. They have been shocked when they touch something. They have heard a crackling sound when they separated clothes from the dryer.
Static electricity can be useful besides being annoying. Static electricity is used to reduce air pollution from smoke stacks; to help paint stick to cars; and help ink stick to paper in photo copiers.
Fundamentally, static electricity is produced by the separation of charges. When two dissimilar materials are in contact, the different ability or affinity to hold on to electrons at the atomic level in the different surfaces causes one material to take some of the electrons from the other surface when the objects are separated. One object now has a more negative charge than the other. The only way to rebalance the situation is to allow the electrons to return through a spark, like lightning, or path.
Until recently, this static electricity was not a realistic energy source. However, with in the past few years, engineers have invented a way to harvest static electricity to make usable electricity to power small electrical devices. It may be that in the future, you will be charging your cell phone as you walk, giving “power walking” a whole new meaning. Using wind and wave, the next generation of triboelectric nanogenerators may be a commercial source of energy.
One engineer in the forefront of research is Dr. Zhong Lin Wang from Georgia Institute of Technology (GeorgiaTech). He and his group have designed triboelectric nanogenerators with nnano-sized variations on the surfaces that increase the charge between two objects upon separation.
The process is efficient, inexpensive, quick, and universal. The process uses common, environmentally safe, easily accessible, inexpensive materials. To date, the technology is best suited to those applications previously dependent on charging batteries from another electrical source such as an electrical outlet, but since 2012, new advances are exploding with applications using various types of motion as well as fluids to produce electricity.
How did Dr. Wang discover this application? Certainly through hard work, much knowledge, and much experimentation. It is interesting to note that it was while Dr. Wang was performing a different experiment, he noted an inconsistency in his data. Rather than dismissing this interference as an obstacle, he turned the obstacle into a challenge and invented triboelectric nanogenerators and a promising source of energy for the future.
Google Dr. Wang or Triboelectric nanogenerators for further information on Dr. Wang’s work.
Most people are familiar with “static” electricity. They have been shocked when they touch something. They have heard a crackling sound when they separated clothes from the dryer.
Static electricity can be useful besides being annoying. Static electricity is used to reduce air pollution from smoke stacks; to help paint stick to cars; and help ink stick to paper in photo copiers.
Fundamentally, static electricity is produced by the separation of charges. When two dissimilar materials are in contact, the different ability or affinity to hold on to electrons at the atomic level in the different surfaces causes one material to take some of the electrons from the other surface when the objects are separated. One object now has a more negative charge than the other. The only way to rebalance the situation is to allow the electrons to return through a spark, like lightning, or path.
Until recently, this static electricity was not a realistic energy source. However, with in the past few years, engineers have invented a way to harvest static electricity to make usable electricity to power small electrical devices. It may be that in the future, you will be charging your cell phone as you walk, giving “power walking” a whole new meaning. Using wind and wave, the next generation of triboelectric nanogenerators may be a commercial source of energy.
One engineer in the forefront of research is Dr. Zhong Lin Wang from Georgia Institute of Technology (GeorgiaTech). He and his group have designed triboelectric nanogenerators with nnano-sized variations on the surfaces that increase the charge between two objects upon separation.
The process is efficient, inexpensive, quick, and universal. The process uses common, environmentally safe, easily accessible, inexpensive materials. To date, the technology is best suited to those applications previously dependent on charging batteries from another electrical source such as an electrical outlet, but since 2012, new advances are exploding with applications using various types of motion as well as fluids to produce electricity.
How did Dr. Wang discover this application? Certainly through hard work, much knowledge, and much experimentation. It is interesting to note that it was while Dr. Wang was performing a different experiment, he noted an inconsistency in his data. Rather than dismissing this interference as an obstacle, he turned the obstacle into a challenge and invented triboelectric nanogenerators and a promising source of energy for the future.
Google Dr. Wang or Triboelectric nanogenerators for further information on Dr. Wang’s work.