Experimental Evaluation of TENGs for Energy Harvesting in Maritime Applications

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been recognized as a promising harvesting technology to satisfy the power requirements of some marine activities. Our current work addresses the TENG design for the purpose of energy harvesting in the sea. In this paper we present a prototype currently under development, in which spheres made of a triboelectric material move within a limited volume due to external mechanical excitation. The spheres move along a printed circuit board having several electrodes and a PDMS film deposited on top, producing numerous voltage spikes. Experimental results are provided with time-domain wave forms and power characterization of the TENG.