Triboelectric Flow Sensor with Float–Cone Structure for Industrial Pneumatic System Monitoring

Abstract Flow monitoring is important in automatic control, medicine and health, flow safety, and early warning of pipeline leakages. In this work, a triboelectric flow sensor (TFS) with a float–cone structure is proposed. The fabricated TFS consists of an outer translucent conical shell and an inner float. As the float with a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) polymer film moves up and down along the triangular electrode with the change in flow, electrons are injected that flow back and forth between electrode and ground, generating an alternating current. Interestingly, the open‐circuit voltage of the TFS is directly proportional to the instantaneous flow and is not affected by the pressure and flow direction. The effective detection range of the TFS is 30 to 300 L min −1 , and the corresponding range ratio is 10:1, which meets actual specifications in industrial applications. The experimental results are consistent with a theoretical analysis. Compared with a commercial digital‐display flow sensor, the TFS has superior flow measurement resolution of better than 5 L min −1 . Therefore, the fabricated TFS is accurate and flexible, and thus provides alternative means to monitor flow for automated industrial equipment.