Abstract
Eco-friendly technologies are of great significance to agricultural sustainability due to the environmental damage caused by agricultural activities. Here, we report a wind and rain energy-driven electrical stimulation system for enhancing crop production. The system is based on an all-weather triboelectric nanogenerator (AW-TENG), which is composed of a bearing-and-hair structured triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and a raindrop-driven TENG. Treated by the self-generated high-voltage electric field, the system can increase pea seeds germination speed by ~26.3% and pea yield by ~17.9%. By harvesting environmental wind and raindrop energy, the AW-TENG can be used to drive various agricultural sensors for optimizing plant growth. This work provides a fresh direction for self-powered systems in safe, efficient and eco-friendly agricultural production improvement and may profoundly contribute to the construction of a sustainable economy.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Key R&D Project from Minister of Science and Technology (no. 2016YFA0202704), National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 52002028), National Science Fund of Excellent Young Scholars of China (grant no. 31922063), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. BX20190324, 2020M680650) and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (no. Z171100002017017). Experiments on plant phenotypes were supported by Beijing EcoTech Science and Technology Ltd, Ecolab. We also thank S. Dai for helpful assistance in experiments.
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Contributions
J.L., J.P. and Z.L.W. conceived the idea. X.L., J.L. and K.H. designed and fabricated the device. X.L., J.L., X.S. and Z.R. carried out the pea planting, phenotype characterization and physical and chemical experiments. X.L., J.L. and X.S. performed the electrical measurement and Supplementary Videos. Y.X. and Y.Y. provided assistance with the experiments. X.L., J.L., J.P. and Z.L.W. wrote the manuscript. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Nature Food thanks Zhuangzhi Sun, Jianhua Hao and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figs. 1–33 and Notes 1–11.
Supplementary Video 1
The detailed rotation situations of the traditional rotation-mode TENG under the simulated natural wind.
Supplementary Video 2
The detailed rotation situations of the BH-TENG under the simulated natural wind.
Supplementary Video 3
Nitrogen oxides generated by the AW-TENG induced microplasma discharge.
Supplementary Video 4
O3 generated by the AW-TENG induced microplasma discharge.
Supplementary Data 1
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Supplementary Data 2
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Li, X., Luo, J., Han, K. et al. Stimulation of ambient energy generated electric field on crop plant growth. Nat Food 3, 133–142 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00449-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00449-9
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