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The Internet of Things is widely applied in our daily live, such as smart sensing and recognition technologies, which contains thousands of sensors. Replacement of batteries for sensors is a difficult task and disposal of batteries may contaminate soil and water. By combining freestanding sliding mode triboelectric nanogenerator (FS-TENG) and electrically tunable liquid lens (ETULL) made of environmentally friendly materials, we develop a self-powered electrowetting optical switch (EOS) for wireless sensing networks.
Uniqueness and Competitive Advantages:
- Low cost, environmentally friendly
- ETULL was fabricated by conducting fluid, insulating oil, transparent cylindrical spacer and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes
- Switch controlled by voltage generated by the FS-TENG: light propagation through the ETULL; and light diverging by the concave lens due to electrowetting effect upon applying a voltage on the ETULL
- Our design can detect both initiation and termination of mechanical motions, while most of the current mechanical sensors can only monitor motion initiation
- Potential applications for environmental monitoring, building and infrastructure monitoring, wireless human machine interface, etc.