Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Sustainable Wastewater Treatment via a Self‐Powered Electrochemical Process

Abstract

By harvesting the flowing kinetic energy of water using a rotating triboelectric nanogenerator (R‐TENG), this study demonstrates a self‐powered wastewater treatment system that simultaneously removes rhodamine B (RhB) and copper ions through an advanced electrochemical unit. With the electricity generated by R‐TENG, the removal efficiency (RE) of RhB can reach the vicinity of 100% within just 15 min when the initial concentration of RhB is around 100 ppm at optimized conditions. The removal efficiency of copper ions can reach 97.3% after 3 h within an initial concentration of 150 ppm at an optimized condition. Importantly, a better performance and higher treating efficiency are found by using the pulsed output of R‐TENG than those using direct current (DC) supply for pollutant removal when consuming equal amount of energy. The recovered copper layer on the cathode through R‐TENG is much denser, more uniform, and with smaller grain size ( d = 20 nm) than those produced by DC process, which also hints at very promising applications of the R‐TENG in electroplating industry. In light of the merits such as easy portability, low cost, and effectiveness, this R‐TENG‐based self‐powered electrochemical system holds great potential in wastewater treatment and electroplating industry.