Anisotropic nanogenerator for anticounterfeiting and information encrypted transmission

Nanogenerators can provide power for independent small systems, so they have great flexibility. Among them, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has gained wide attention due to its high output energy density. However, traditional TENGs don't show variation of output signal when the relative direction of the friction layers changes. Through electrospinning aligned polymer nanofibers, we obtained anisotropic TENG (A-TENG), which has better mechanical strength than the disordered electrospun TENG. This anisotropic TENG can be used as self-powered angle sensor. The appearance of A-TENG is the same along different directions, which makes it applicable for anticounterfeiting by measuring the relative output along different directions by using another piece of ordered nanofibers. Meanwhile, A-TENG can also be used for information encryption. This work provides an idea that new nanogenerators can be designed based on some common physical effects.