Electrical energy harvesting from water droplets passing a hydrophobic polymer with a metal film on its back side

• Water droplet electrical energy harvesting system.
• Charge dynamics for rolling/sliding and bouncing droplets.
• Charging of capacitor increases with droplet density and decreases when a continuous film is formed.
• Model for volume flow rate-dependent charging of the external capacitor.

Recent research has demonstrated that electrical energy can be harvested when water droplets move over a hydrophobic polymer covered by a single electrode on its back-side. Here we study the charge dynamics as water droplets pass the polymer. We also investigate how the charging of an external capacitor changes with water flow volume rate, and present a model to understand the results.

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