Multilayered Cylindrical Triboelectric Nanogenerator to Harvest Kinetic Energy of Tree Branches for Monitoring Environment Condition and Forest Fire

Forest fires present a great threat as they can rapidly grow and become large, resulting in tragic loss of life and property when occurring near occupied land. Here a self-powered fire alarm system based on a novel multilayered cylindrical triboelectric nanogenerator (MC-TENG) that can produce electrical power for the detection sensors by harvesting the kinetic energy of moving tree branches in a forest is presented. The major parameters for harvesting the kinetic energy using the proposed MC-TENG are investigated, including the number of triboelectric layers, the frequency, the amplitude of external excitation, and the orientation between motion direction and device configuration. The fabricated MC-TENG results in a peak power of 2.9 mW and a maximum average power of 1.2 mW at a low frequency of 1.25 Hz. The integrated self-powered forest fire alarm system, consisting of fire sensors, a carbon-based micro-supercapacitor, and the MC-TENG, is demonstrated to be able to report fire risk or hazard efficiently, accurately, and robustly. This study provides a new solution to reduce the forest fire risk through a portable and sustainable alarm system by effectively harvesting kinetic energies in natural environment with TENG technology.