Self-powered environmental sensor system driven by nanogenerators

We demonstrate a fully stand-alone, self-powered environmental sensor driven by nanogenerators with harvesting vibration energy. Such a system is made of a ZnO nanowire-based nanogenerator, a rectification circuit, a capacitor for charge storage, a signal transmission LED light and a carbon nanotube-based Hg2+ ion sensor. The circuit lights up the LED indicator when it detects mercury ions in water solution. It is the first demonstration of a nanomaterial-based, self-powered sensor system for detecting a toxic pollutant.