Sustainable power generation for at least one month from ambient humidity using unique nanofluidic diode

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 3484
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yong, Yang, Tingting, Shang, Kedong, Guo, Fengmei, Shang, Yuanyuan, Chang, Shulong, Cui, Licong, Lu, Xulei, Jiang, Zhongbao, Zhou, Jian, Fu, Chunqiao, He, Qi-Chang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16-06-2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/4077/4072/4062; 639/925/927/351; Charge transfer; Chemical reduction; Clean energy; Clean technology; Electric fields; Electric generators; Electric potential; Energy; Energy conversion; Energy conversion efficiency; Energy harvesting; Energy sources; Engineering Sciences; Fluidics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humidity; Ion charge; Ion migration; Membranes; Moisture effects; multidisciplinary; Nanofluids; Oxidation; Oxidation-reduction potential; P-n junctions; Redox reactions; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sustainable energy; Voltage
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31067-z

The continuous energy-harvesting in moisture environment is attractive for the development of clean energy source. Controlling the transport of ionized mobile charge in intelligent nanoporous membrane systems is a promising strategy to develop the moisture-enabled electric generator. However, existing designs still suffer from low output power density. Moreover, these devices can only produce short-term (mostly a few seconds or a few hours, rarely for a few days) voltage and current output in the ambient environment. Here, we show an ionic diode–type hybrid membrane capable of continuously generating energy in the ambient environment. The built-in electric field of the nanofluidic diode-type PN junction helps the selective ions separation and the steady-state one-way ion charge transfer. This directional ion migration is further converted to electron transportation at the surface of electrodes via oxidation-reduction reaction and charge adsorption, thus resulting in a continuous voltage and current with high energy conversion efficiency.
Energy harvesting of humidity present in air can be used for the development of clean energy sources and self-sustained systems. The authors propose a nanofluid energy conversion system with integrated ionic diode-type hybrid membrane for energy generation in environmental moisture.