Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered IoT Technologies for Sustainable Smart Cities and Intelligent Structural Health Monitoring

The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to an unprecedented demand for reliable, distributed, and maintenance-free power sources for billions of sensing nodes. Traditional batteries are limited by finite lifetimes, environmental impact, and the high cost of replacement, especially in large-scale or inaccessible deployments. To address these challenges, energy harvesting technologies, particularly piezoelectric and triboelectric mechanisms, have emerged as promising solutions for enabling self-powered devices. These technologies are increasingly vital for smart and sustainable cities, where dense sensor networks support functions such as environmental monitoring, infrastructure management, and structural health monitoring. Advancements in material science, device design, and hybrid energy systems are enabling more efficient, robust, and scalable self-powered IoT systems.

The topic encourages research on energy harvesting strategies for self-powered devices in Internet of Things (IoT) networks deployed in smart sustainable cities and structural health monitoring applications. It emphasizes advances in piezoelectric and triboelectric materials, multi-mode and broadband designs, hybridized architectures, and flexible transducers to enhance power density, durability, and operational bandwidth. Recent innovations, including micro/nano-engineered interfaces and ultra-low-power electronics, provide practical pathways for autonomous, maintenance-free systems. By integrating modeling, experimental validation, and real-world demonstrations, this Research Topic aims to accelerate the development of robust, scalable energy harvesting solutions capable of supporting IoT-based structural health monitoring and other intelligent urban applications, ultimately enabling the widespread deployment of sustainable, self-powered devices in modern smart cities. We welcome original research and review articles, including theoretical studies, numerical simulations, laboratory experiments, and field implementations. Submissions that explore hybrid or broadband energy harvesting, durable and flexible transducers, and autonomous monitoring systems are particularly encouraged.

Wind energy harvesting;

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs);

Smart materials and structures;

Adaptive structures and innovative mechanisms;

Metamaterials and metastructures;

Signal processing for structural health monitoring (SHM);

AI-enhanced energy harvesting systems;

Energy harvesting for IoT applications.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered IoT Technologies for Sustainable Smart Cities and Intelligent Structural Health Monitoring

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.