Recently, Professor Zheng Haiwu’s research group has published new research achievement in an international top journal named Nano Energy [impact factor 13.12].

As a ubiquitous and renewable energy, acoustic energy is extensively distributed in everycorner of the world, such as the noise from factory machines andconstruction sites. However, acoustic energy capturing has not been as prevalentas other types of energy harvesting, which is mainly ascribed to itsrelatively low power density and an absence of effective scavengingtechnology. In recent years, as an emerging technology, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has become an ideal approach to conquer these problems.

In this work, an integratedTENG with a polymer tube is constructed to harvest acoustic energy from theenvironment, which can work stably in the frequency ranging from 20 to 1000 Hz. The unique structure designfacilitates acoustic energy capturing and the enhancement of sound pressure. The TENG can deliver an open-circuitvoltage and short-circuit current of 400 V and 175 μA, respectively. In addition, The TENG can not only distinguish the frequency of tuning fork, but also record the sound of human speech and distinguish the frequency range of human voice signal. The work also demonstrated the listening and recordingprocess of a famous Chinese traditional music, “Jasmine Flower” by TENG. In a word, this work not only providesa simple, cost-effective approach for fabricating high performanceTENG to convert ambient acoustic energy into electricity, but also provides an approach for self-powered sensing, with potential applicationin artificial intelligence, the IOT and jetengine noise reduction.

ZHENG Haiwu, gentian YUEand YunlongZI (a professor from The Chinese University of Hong Kong) are the joint corresponding authors. The first corresponding institution is Henan University. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Program for InnovativeResearch Team in Science and Technology in University of HenanProvince.

Full text link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.11.041