A nanoscale surface engineered magneto-mechano-triboelectric nanogenerator enabled by reliable pattern replication for self-powered IoT devices

The present work demonstrates a high-performance magneto-mechano-triboelectric nanogenerator (MMTENG) by utilizing a reliable pattern replication process to harvest electric energy from a magnetic field for powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This process enables the formation of a nanoscale structure on a triboelectric polymer film for improving contact triboelectrification and electrostatic induction. The surface-patterned MMTENG achieves a high open-circuit peak-to-peak voltage (Vpp = 521 V), short-circuit current (Imax = 177 μA), and maximum peak power (Pmax = 7 mW) under an 8 Oe magnetic field, which is 4.6 times higher than that of a non-patterned MMTENG device (Pmax = 1.5 mW). The harvested electric power from the MMTENG device is utilized to operate an IoT environmental (temperature and humidity) monitoring sensor.