Scotch Yoke‐Based Self‐Powered Triboelectric Buoy for Wastewater Discharge Quality Monitoring

Nowadays, the accelerated pace of marine industrial activities has led to a surge in industrial wastewater discharge into the ocean, posing an increasingly severe threat to marine environment. Strengthening the monitoring of marine wastewater discharge quality is crucial for the sustainable development of the ocean ecosystem. Due to the limitations of the electrode material, traditional batteries have stability issues and limited power output. In this work, a self‐powered triboelectric nanogenerator based on Scotch yoke mechanism (SY‐TENG) for ocean wave energy harnessing and wastewater discharge quality monitoring is proposed, which basically consists of a Scotch yoke module and a rolling module. The working mechanism of the SY‐TENG based on the Scotch yoke structure is well investigated to enhance the wave conversion efficiency. Furthermore, to improve the power conversion efficiency, the influences of configuration parameters, including the wave frequency and amplitude, on the output performances of the device are systematically explored; a peak power density of 17.57 W m −3 Hz −1 can be achieved by an individual SY‐TENG. Finally, the SY‐TENG is applied to monitor the real‐time wastewater discharge quality using a seawater monitoring sensor; through monitoring the water temperature, water level, turbidity, and the total dissolved solids (TDS), the system can provide whether the discharged sewage meets the discharge standards and early warning. This work provides an effective design of TENG for blue energy harvesting and proposes a novel approach for wastewater quality monitoring.