Natural wood-based triboelectric nanogenerator as self-powered sensing for smart homes and floors

With the rapid development of Internet of things (IoTs), big data collection and analysis based on distributed sensing is particularly important. Here, we report a natural biodegradable wood-based triboelectric nanogenerator (W-TENG), which not only can produce high electric output to power microelectronic devices, but also can be used as a self-powered sensor. A pure natural biodegradable and pollution-free wood is used as the triboelectric material. The output voltage and current of the W-TENG (8 cm × 8 cm) is 220 ± 20 V and 5.8 ± 0.5 μA at a frequency of 2 Hz. The maximum output power density could be as high as 158.2 mW/m2 at a resistance of 50 MΩ. On this basis, The W-TENG can be widely used as self-powered light switch, self-powered doorbell which can realize the intelligent control of the lights and contribute to the energy conservation to a great extent. In addition, it can be designed as a smart floor and installed on the stage wooden floor to track and record the dancers' movements. Moreover, dancers can control the lights themselves through the floor under their feet. This W-TENG based self-powered system breaks new ground for wood-based electronics, which will have potential applications in big data analysis, smart home and smart city environments.