Triboelectric Nanogenerator-Based Self-Powered Resonant Sensor for Non-Destructive Defect Detection

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 19; no. 15; p. 3262
• Main Authors: Chen, Jinkai, Zhang, Chi, Xuan, Weipeng, Yu, Liyang, Dong, Shurong, Xie, Yuedong, Yin, Wuliang, Luo, Jikui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 24.07.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Energy; Frequency variation; Humidity; Internet of Things; Nanogenerators; non-destructive testing; resonant; Resonant frequencies; self-powered sensor; Sensors; Temperature effects; triboelectric; Wind power; United Kingdom > UK; China; resonant; triboelectric; non-destructive testing; self-powered sensor
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s19153262

A triboelectric nanogenerator-based self-powered resonant sensor is proposed and investigated. By integrating an inductor and a microswitch with a triboelectric nanogenerator, a new type triboelectric nanogenerator is obtained, the pulse voltage output is converted to an oscillating signal with a very stable modulated resonant frequency, immune to the cross disturbance of contact-related variation (force, frequency, distance) and environmental variation, such as humidity and temperature. This is utilized for non-destructive defect detection. When the coil inductor scans the surface of a specimen with defects, varying resonant frequencies are obtained for different types of defects, showing excellent consistency between the experimental and simulated results. The results demonstrate the potential of the self-powered TENG-based resonant sensor to be a highly stable and sensitive magnetic sensor for the non-destructive defect detection applications.