Nanogenerator for scavenging low frequency vibrations

Energy harvesting technologies have being developed swiftly in the last couple of years owing to the recent developments of low power consuming features of portable and wearable electronic devices. For operating these devices and systems, eco-friendly and low frequency vibration based nanogenerators have been researched and developed. The major reason behind this rapid growth of such nanogenerators is the abundance of low frequence vibrations, which exist almost everywhere and have the potential to be easily harvested by many different transduction mechanisms. This paper reviews the key ideas and performances of these reported nanogenerators for scavenging energy from low frequency vibrations. In addition, various types of vibration sources, approaches, device architectures, materials, fabrications and practical applications of these energy scavenging devices are also reviewed. (topical review)