Self-powered environmental sensor system driven by nanogenerators

• DOI: 10.1039/c1ee01558c
• Publication Date: 2011-06-23T13:00:30Z
• Authors: Minbaek Lee; Joonho Bae; Joohyung Lee; Churl-Seung Lee; Seunghun Hong; Zhong Lin Wang
• Keywords: Nanogenerator; Mercury

We demonstrate a fully stand-alone, self-powered environmental sensor driven by nanogenerators with harvesting vibration energy. Such system is made of ZnO nanowire-based nanogenerator, rectification circuit, capacitor for charge storage, signal transmission LED light and carbon nanotube-based Hg2+ ion sensor. The circuit lights up the indicator when it detects mercury ions in water solution. It first demonstration nanomaterial-based, detecting toxic pollutant.