Scavenging low-speed breeze wind energy using a triboelectric nanogenerator installed inside a square variable diameter channel

Over the recent years, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) have received widespread attention as a simple and efficient energy harvesting device. However, how to collect the breeze in daily life is an important issue that need to be solved for wind-powered triboelectric nanogenerator (W-TENG). Here, we propose a method of connecting a square variable diameter channel to the previously studied double-ended fixed W-TENG, which realizes the collection of energy in the breeze. As a result, after adding channels, the starting wind speed of W-TENG is optimized to as low as 0.4 m s⁻¹, with an average output voltage of 6.1 V. This method not only enables W-TENG to start at the ultra-low wind speed, but also improves the output performance. When the external wind velocity is 2.0 m s⁻¹, the output voltage is increased by 10.6 times after adding the channel structure. This work provides a good strategy for collecting the breeze without changing the original structure of the W-TENG, fully demonstrating the advantages of energy harvesting under the low wind velocity.