Self-powered metal surface anti-corrosion protection using energy harvested from rain drops and wind

Corrosion of metal surfaces, especially ships and cultural relics, is one of the most concerns in asset protection, which costs billions of dollars worldwide each year. For the protection of metal surfaces, cathodic protection (CP) has been widely used as a primary technology. However, the application of the technology results in high energy cost and more serious environmental pollutions. In this work, a self-powered CP system for metal surface protection was designed by utilizing the energy harvested from natural rain drops and wind using a flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). The TENG power-supplying system can provide a practical energy source for sustainably driving the CP process without using an external power source. Stereoscopic microscopy, AC impedance measurements, polarization test and surface tension testing were used to verify the feasibility of self-powered CP process. Our results indicate that the flexible TENG can produce highly efficient CP system for almost all metallic structures. This work not only demonstrates a highly-simple-fabrication, great-performance and cost-effect approach to protect metal surfaces from corrosion, but also develops a new self-powered electrochemical technique for CP that can be widely used in metal cultural relics, ocean engineering, industry, transportation, and so on. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.