Multiphase Bipolar Electret Rotary Generator for Energy Harvesting and Rotation Monitoring

Inspired by an electromagnetic generator containing multi-pole radial ring magnets, we designed a bipolar electret rotatory power generator (e-RPG) with a multi-phase core-shell structure to boost output performance and achieve high-precision self-sensing capabilities. A selectively localized rotary corona discharging method is invented to uniformly inject both positive and negative charges into a single electret’s curved surface. The experimental results show that the output power of the bipolar-charged e-RPG is increased to 384% compared with those of positive or negative charging alone, which is consistent with the results obtained from the theoretical model. By introducing the core-shell-structured multi-phase electrode design, both the rotation direction and speed can be precisely detected. The frequency sensitivity and linearity $\text{R}^{2}$ (coefficient of determination) are up to 3.0 rpm/Hz and 99.9%, respectively. The proposed e-RPG has potential applications in the Internet of Things, self-powered sensing and self-sensing of rotational motions.