I-Corps: A Green and Flexible Nanogenerator Film for Sensing and Energy-Harvesting Applications

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide an efficient yet environmentally-friendly and sustainable way to harvest energy from walking steps. Our energy-harvesting subfloor mat can convert normal human walking steps to electricity. The mat is expected to serve the function of 1) a renewable energy source, 2) a power supply for IoT sensors, 3) a self-powered sensor with wireless connectivity. The mat can benefit retail stores and manufacturing companies by helping them analyze the customer/worker locations and foot traffic patterns, and can meet the needs of energy storage and information transmission at heavy foot traffic area like school, airport, stadium. If developed successfully, this mat can be integrated with various floor products and applied across the smart building and IoT industry. This mat also has an environmental impact in which it reduces carbon footprint, promotes use of green natural materials and generation of renewable energy.This I-Corps project is based on a patent-pending cellulose triboelectric nanogenerator technology. This technology lies at the intersection of materials science, electrical engineering, and chemistry and chemical engineering, and the research findings can potentially impact the rapidly growing smart building and IoT industry. This technology addresses the technical challenge of developing a thin yet highly effective triboelectric nanogenerator from cheap, abundant natural materials, by bulk tuning of the tribopolarity of natural materials and rational configuration design of the nanogenerator. The bulk tuning and configuration design methodologies developed in this R&D effort can be applied to other relevant areas, including mechanical energy harvester design, and materials surface potential engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.