Optimization of a Rolling Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on the Nano-Micro Structure for Ocean Environmental Monitoring

The serious environmental pollution and energy crisis have become a global issue, which makes it a pressing task to develop sustainable and clean energy sources. There exists a large amount of renewable energy in the ocean; unfortunately, most resources are underutilized. In this work, we demonstrate a performance-enhancing rolling triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on nano-micro-structured polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) films. The nano-micro structure on the PTFE surface can increase the effective contact area and enhance the triboelectric effect, which is beneficial to improve the output performance. As a result, the output voltage and output current are 25.1 V and 7.3 mu A, respectively. We further investigate the effect of nano-micro PTFE concentration on the output performance. The TENG based on a 45% concentration of nano-micro PTFE presents the maximum output power. Furthermore, this TENG can effectively harvest water wave energy with various amplitudes and frequencies, which has the potential to harvest ocean energy for environmental monitoring.