Self-powered forest ambient monitoring microsystem based on wind energy hybrid nanogenerators

In response to the call for zero-carbon energy supply for Internet of Things (IoTs) applications and to get rid of the dependence of traditional distributed IoTs devices on batteries, the invention of nanogenerators that can convert wind energy in the surrounding environment into electrical energy have received widespread attention. Herein, a wind energy hybrid harvester (WH-EH) combining a soft-friction and positive-directional triboelectric nanogenerator (SP-TENG) and a hierarchical rotating electromagnetic nanogenerator (HR-EMG) is reported to construct a self-powered forest environment monitoring microsystem. With the design of thin inner wall beams and comb-shaped electrodes, the SP-TENG is able to change the output into positive-directional, which can be stored directly in the energy storage device, breaking the limitation of the alternating positive and negative output of conventional TENGs. In addition, the HR-EMG embeds coils in the cup lid to make the most of the available space in the external package. In the WH-EH, a layered structure, including the HR-EMG and SP-TENG is adopted to jointly utilize wind energy for both higher output and higher utilization. In order to effectively implement wireless monitoring of the forest environment, the WH-EH is further utilized to develop a self-powered forest environment monitoring microsystem by powering the IoTs sensor nodes, realizing ambient temperature and humidity sampling and wireless transmission, so as to achieve the purpose of preventing forest fires. It is believed that the development of the WH-EH and the self-powered forest environment monitoring microsystem provides diverse options for the practicalization of self-powered IoTs systems and the energy supply problem of IoTs sensor networks.