Enhancing the performance of triboelectric nanogenerator through prior-charge injection and its application on self-powered anticorrosion

Corrosion is a large damage for industry, infrastructure and transport equipments such as vehicle and freighter. If the energies in environment can be harvested into electricity for the prevention of corrosion, it will be very valuable. Here, we enhanced the property of triboelectric nanogenerator and designed a self-powered anticorrosion system to protect iron from corrosion. Nanostructures fabricated through a simple method and prior-charge injection into the space between the surface of the friction layers and the electrodes were used to greatly enhance the property of triboelectric nanogenerator. The charge density was increased by 48% owing to the nanostructure and further increased by 53% owing to the prior-charge injection process. The output open-circuit voltage reached 1008 V, the short-circuit current density reached 32.1 mA/m(2) and the charge density reached 121 mu C/m(2). On the basis of this high performance TENG, we developed a self-powered anticorrosion system to successfully protect a piece of iron sheet soaked in saline water from corrosion. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.