Artificial plants are usually only used for landscaping and indoor landscaping, so that the inside and outside of the house are simple and can be more green without regular watering, but the artificial plants developed by American scientists can generate electricity through wind and rain, in addition to beautification, they also add a little functionality.
Developed by a team from Northeastern University in Boston, USA, this experimental "plant" can generate electricity with breeze and rainwater because it combines a frictional nanometer generator (TENG) with a droplet-based energy generator (DEG) to enhance visual appeal and is designed in the shape of a leaf.
As the name suggests, in order to collect electricity through the triboelectric effect, the most common triboelectric generator in daily life is the static electricity that occurs when combing hair and wearing sweaters, the team sandwiched the nylon nanofiber triboelectric generator in a polytetrafluoroethylene layer (Teflon), as long as the wind blows, the Teflon and nylon layers will rub and squeeze each other to generate static electricity, and then use copper electrodes to convert it into electricity.
Another type of water droplet energy generator is to generate electricity through the force exerted by raindrops hitting the leaves. The team pointed out that tests so far have shown that this small power plant, which at first glance looks like an ordinary artificial plant, has enough power to make 10 LED lights flash briefly under simulated natural wind and rain conditions.
This could also turn a plant into a different kind of plant, and the team says that if you scale up and create a larger artificial plant, you can increase the amount of electricity you can generate, or you can connect more small plants together and turn them into small power grids.