The d-arched piezoelectric-triboelectric hybrid nanogenerator as a self-powered vibration sensor

Abstract With the rapid development of traditional sensors, the long-time reliable power supply has been one of the severe problems to restrict the sensors’ wide applications in daily life. Here, this paper presents a d-arched sensor consisting of piezoelectric-triboelectric energy harvesting unit, which can be treated as a real-time self-powered vibration sensor which can simultaneously convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The d-arched sensor with middle shared electrode based on piezoelectric-triboelectric hybrid mechanisms can increase sensitivity and measuring range through improving the corresponding output voltage and current performance. After surface micro-nano structural design and size optimization, the E-piezoelectric output voltage and current increase by 25% and 42.6% at a frequency of 10 Hz and mechanical force of 5 N, correspondingly, the E-triboelectric output voltage and current increase by 21.9% and 69.3%, respectively. Moreover, the d-arched hybrid nanogenerator (NG) as a sensor presents that the sensitivities of the sensor are 3.65 μW/g and 6.14 μW/g under the vibration amplitude of 3 mm and 6 mm, accordingly the linearity errors of the sensor are 4.23% and 5.12% under the vibration amplitude of 3 mm and 6 mm, respectively. The measurement demonstrates that a good linearity between the E-piezoelectric output power and the acceleration of vibration. Therefore, it is evident that the d-arched hybrid NG can be used as a vibration sensor.