Ocean related activities are often supported by offshore equipment with particular power demands. These are usually deployed at remote locations and have limited space, thus small energy harvesting technologies, such as photovoltaic panels or wind turbines, are used to power their instruments. However, the inherent energy sources are intermittent and have lower density and predictability than an alternative source: wave energy. Here, we propose and critically assess triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as a promising technology for integration into wave buoys. Three TENGs based on rolling-spheres were developed and their performance compared in both a “dry” bench testing system under rotating motions, and in a large-scale wave basin under realistic sea-states installed within a scaled navigation buoy. Both experiments show that the electrical outputs of these TENGs increase with decreasing wave periods and increasing wave amplitudes. However, the wave basin tests clearly demonstrated a significant dependency of the electrical outputs on the pitch degree of freedom and the need to take into account the full dynamics of the buoy, and not only that of TENGs, when subjected to the excitations of waves. This work opens new horizons and strategies to apply TENGs in marine applications, considering realistic hydrodynamic behaviors of floating bodies.

与海洋有关的活动通常受到具有特定电力需求的海上设备的支持。这些通常部署在偏远地区且空间有限，因此使用小型能量收集技术（例如光伏面板或风力涡轮机）为其仪器供电。但是，固有能源是间歇性的，比替代能源（波能）的密度和可预测性低。在这里，我们提出并批判性地评估了摩擦电纳米发电机（TENGs），将其作为一种有前途的技术集成到波浪浮标中。开发了三个基于滚动球面的TENG，并在旋转运动的“干式”台架测试系统中以及安装在可缩放导航浮标中的真实海况下的大型波浪盆中对它们的性能进行了比较。这两个实验都表明，这些TENG的电输出随着波周期的减少和波幅的增加而增加。但是，波浪盆试验清楚地表明，电输出对俯仰自由度有很大的依赖性，并且在受到波浪激发时，不仅需要考虑浮标的全部动力学特性，而且还要考虑到TENG的全部动力学特性。考虑到浮体的实际流体动力学行为，这项工作为将TENGs应用于海洋应用开辟了新的视野和策略。当受到波的激发时，不仅是TENG。考虑到浮体的实际流体动力学行为，这项工作为将TENGs应用于海洋应用开辟了新的视野和策略。当受到波的激发时，不仅是TENG。考虑到浮体的实际流体动力学行为，这项工作为将TENGs应用于海洋应用开辟了新的视野和策略。