Sensitive self-powered particles detection based on cumulative triboelectric charging

Detection of particles with or without charge arouses enormous interest in energy, medical service, industrial processing, and equipment monitoring fields. In this paper, a self-powered particles sensor based on a triboelectric nanogenerator (PS-TENG) is designed to characterize particles by detecting the outputs induced by the triboelectrification between the particles and the PTFE surface. Ascribed to the cumulative triboelectric charging effect on the PTFE surface, the output voltage of PS-TENG is significantly amplified. Then the relationships between the output voltage and the material and size of particles are systematically studied, based on which the characteristics of the random particles are accurately detected. The detection principle and characterization method using PS-TENG for charged particles are also proposed and further demonstrated by systematical comparison with detection of Faraday cup method. Furthermore, based on a PS-TENG with double electrodes, the average velocity of particles and particle mass flow can also be measured. This work promotes the development and application of triboelectric nanogenerator in self-powered particle characterization, mass flow monitoring, equipment fault diagnosis, and accident prediction.

Automated summary

This paper presents a self-powered particle sensor based on a triboelectric nanogenerator, which detects particles with or without charge by studying the relationship between the output voltage and the material and size of particles. This work promotes the development and application of triboelectric nanogenerator in various fields.