Self-powered temperature-changing system driven by wind energy

Research on outdoor, mobile, and self-powered temperature-control devices has always been highly regarded. These devices can reduce energy consumption for cooling and heating, and they have broad market prospects. On this basis, a rotary disc-shaped triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with a maximum open-circuit voltage of 6913 V, a maximum short-circuit current of 85 μA, and a maximum transferred charge of 1.3 μC was prepared. We synthesized a ferroelectric ceramic composed of 0.15PbTiO₃-0.85PbSc_0.5Ta_0.5O₃ (0.15PT-0.85PST), which exhibited excellent electrothermal effects at room temperature. By quenching, the electrothermal effect ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Δ</mml:mi></mml:math> T_max) and energy harvesting properties of the device were 1.574 K and 0.542 J/cm³, respectively. Then, for the first time, we proposed a self-powered temperature quantification control system with a rotary disc-shaped TENG. This device effectively harnessed wind and water energy, in addition to other types of energy. The system consisted of energy collecting cups, a rotating disc-shaped FEP-rabbit fur TENG, a circuit management module, and a ferroelectric ceramic chip array. Through the circuit management module, the system converted external wind energy into a high-voltage electric field at the two ends of the 0.15PT-0.85PST ceramic chip to fully stimulate the electrothermal effect. At a speed of 200 rpm, the temperature change in the insulated cup within 276 s was 0.49 K, and the volume of the insulated cup was 300 times greater than that of the 0.15PT-0.85PST ceramic chip. Compared with the results reported in previous work, the cooling and heating times were both reduced by 31%, and the temperature changes for both cooling and heating increased by 81%. Moreover, the heating and cooling temperatures of the device optimized on this basis were increased to 1.19 K and 0.93 K, respectively. The great improvement in the temperature variation performance confirmed the great potential of the device for commercialization. This research could serve as a reference for reducing energy consumption for cooling and heating, and it meets the international energy policies of carbon dioxide emission peaking and carbon neutrality.