Magnetic force driven nanogenerators as a noncontact energy harvester and sensor

Nano Lett. 2012 Jul 11;12(7):3701-5. doi: 10.1021/nl301490q. Epub 2012 Jun 14.

Abstract

Nanogenerator has been a very important energy harvesting technology through directly deforming piezoelectric material. Here, we report a new magnetic force driven contactless nanogenerator (CLNG), which avoids the direct contact between nanogenerator and mechanical movement source. The CLNG can harvest the mechanical movement energy in a noncontact mode to generate electricity. Their output voltage and current can be as large as 3.2 V and 50 nA, respectively, which is large enough to power up a liquid crystal display. We also demonstrate a means by which a magnetic sensor can be built.