Mr. Jiaming Zhou, a final-year PhD student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has bagged two prestigious awards in the Energy Saving Championship Scheme – Competition for Students. Guided by his supervisor, Professor Dong-Myeong Shin, the groundbreaking project entitled "Droplet-based triboelectric nanogenerator for energy harvesting in Hong Kong" earned him the Creativity Award and the Hanson Outstanding Award.
The Energy Saving Championship Scheme – Competition for Students is a well-respected event hosted by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD). The competition serves as a platform to raise awareness about energy conservation, encouraging students to devise innovative solutions to mitigate energy consumption.
The project seeks to tackle energy inefficiency by developing a droplet-based triboelectric nanogenerator. This ingenious device harnesses the kinetic energy from falling droplets, like rain or condensation, transforming it into usable electrical energy. Given Hong Kong's substantial annual rainfall and high humidity, this technology has the potential to significantly cut the city's dependence on conventional energy sources, contributing to a lower carbon footprint.
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), based on the working mechanism of contact electrification and electrostatic induction, are emerging as a next-generation energy harvesting technology due to their lightweight, simple fabrication, diversity in material selection, and high energy conversion efficiency. However, the power output of TENGs needs to be trimmed to resolve a power mismatch between supply and demand. In particular, the alternating current output needs to be rectified with the help of rigid electrical circuit components in order to serve as a power module in electric appliances, drawing the inevitable power loss in electricity generation. Inspired by the lightning, he have designed a droplet-based direct current triboelectric nanogenerator (DDC-TENG) that eliminates the need for a rectifier. The innovative DDC-TENG capitalizes on the electrostatic potential generated between water droplets and the triboelectric layer. Utilizing the dielectric breakdown forming in a small air gap between the contact electrification layer and electrode, it was directly able to charge a capacitor in the absence of any circuit component.
This groundbreaking research has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Small, under the title "Switchable Power Generation in Triboelectric Nanogenerator Toward Chip-Less Wearable Power Module Applications." The article has also been featured as the back cover of Issue No. 31, published on August 1, 2024.
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