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Superhydrophobic microfluidic engineered droplet triboelectric nanogenerator for optimizing multichannel energy conversion

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  • Liu, Wenhao
  • Zhang, Xufang
  • Wang, Wei
  • Wang, Pengfei
  • Huang, Xing
  • Xu, Zhongbin
  • Ruan, Xiaodong

Abstract

Droplet triboelectric nanogenerator (D-TENG) is a promising technology for clean supplementary energy from natural water. However, in multichannel parallelized D-TENGs, the electric energy conversion efficiency is greatly reduced due to variations in droplet size. Herein, a simple multichannel microfluidic method is developed to generate uniform water droplets in air by gravity. The structures and key parameters are optimized. This optimization improves the uniformity of the generated droplet sizes. By the microfluidic systems, the optimal droplet size (3.63 mm) is determined for the D-TENGs. This size is consistently maintained across multiple parallelized microfluidic units. The time-averaged brightness of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was tested. The 16-channel device produced a brightness more than seven times that of the single-channel device. The device offers the advantages of stable output and high efficiency. It has the potential to serve as a supplementary power source for facilities such as houses, streetlights, and ships.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Wenhao & Zhang, Xufang & Wang, Wei & Wang, Pengfei & Huang, Xing & Xu, Zhongbin & Ruan, Xiaodong, 2025. "Superhydrophobic microfluidic engineered droplet triboelectric nanogenerator for optimizing multichannel energy conversion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:340:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225048522
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.139210
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wanghuai Xu & Huanxi Zheng & Yuan Liu & Xiaofeng Zhou & Chao Zhang & Yuxin Song & Xu Deng & Michael Leung & Zhengbao Yang & Ronald X. Xu & Zhong Lin Wang & Xiao Cheng Zeng & Zuankai Wang, 2020. "A droplet-based electricity generator with high instantaneous power density," Nature, Nature, vol. 578(7795), pages 392-396, February.
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