Soft-bionic-fishtail structured triboelectric nanogenerator driven by flow-induced vibration for low-velocity water flow energy harvesting

To adapt to the low-velocity water flow closely related to human life,the natural energy can be efficiently harvested and used to power monitoring devices.Herein,a triboelectric soft fishtail(TE-SFT)driven by flow-induced vibration(FIV)effect is proposed based on the soft material synthesis technology.Specifically,inspired by the fishtail fin,a bluff body with the cross-section of fishtail-shaped is designed,and has a preferable vortex effect by fluid simulation.In power generation part,the triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG)is designed to act as an inertial pendulum structure by geometric method.Under the FIV effect,the TESFT driven by fishtail-shaped bluff body swings like a fish in the water and then brings the inertial pendulum to acquire the oscillation for harvesting energy from low-velocity water flow.The TE-SFT attains an open-circuit voltage(VOC)of 200 V to 313 V at the flow velocities of 0.24 to 0.89 m/s.Additionally,after 30 days of water immersion,the VOC of TE-SFT retains 96.81%.In demonstration,the TE-SFT is applied to power the temperature and humidity sensor through harvesting water flow energy.This work also provides a way for self-powered system based on the TENG and soft bionic fish in water environment.