A fully packed water-proof, humidity resistant triboelectric nanogenerator for transmitting Morse code

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) are widely reported for harnessing and utilization of waste energy. The external influence such as relative humidity is well informed to influence the output performance of TENG which makes it unsuitable for various applications. Herein, we demonstrated a full packed waterproof WP-TENG in a vertical contact-separation mode using PDMS and nickel foam as tribo-active material. The obtained output voltage and short-circuit current was 88 V and 6.2 mu A with a maximum power of approximate to 350 mu W and a power density of approximate to 4 mW/m(2). The waterproof nature was confirmed by soaking WP-TENG in water for different time intervals. The influence of relative humidity on the output of TENG was also tested. The stability of the device output in water and high relative humidity makes it suitable for various real-time applications. Finally, we reported a novel concept of sending the Morse code using WP-TENG. The alphabet and numeric are encoded as per international Morse code. The real time applicability was proved by sending a message "Jeju National University Help Me" over a long distance. Next, as a visual demonstration, a LED circuit was connected with the WP-TENG, and "SOS" code was generated. According to the Morse code the LED was glowing in different intensity. We believe that this concept opens a new domain of TENG in communication applications.