Scientists build thermal conductivity-enhanced flexible hydrovoltaic power generation system

Due to the spontaneity of evaporation and small geographical environmental constraints, hydrovoltaic generators can achieve long-term, continuous production capacity and are used in self-driven sensing and wearable electronic devices< /a>It has broad application prospects in energy supply and other aspects. At present, research on hydrovoltaic power generation devices mostly focuses on improving power generation performance through nanostructure design or surface functionalization. However, the slow evaporation rate of water molecules in the environment (low driving force) is a bottleneck that limits the power generation efficiency of hydrovoltaic devices.

The team of Zhang Jue, a researcher at the Suzhou Institute of Nanotechnology and Nanobionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a moisture-driven self-powered flexible wearable sensing system in the early stage (Nano letters, 2019,19,5544-5552 ), hydrovoltaic generators for energy supply of flexible sensor devices (Nano Energy, 2020, 72, 104663) and hydrovoltaic generators that can use sweat to generate electricity (Nano Energy, 2021, 85, 105970), etc., A flexible ionic thermoelectric (i-TE) gelatin material was combined with a porous Al2O3 hydrovoltaic generator, and their synergy was used to construct a thermal conductivity-enhanced flexible hydrovoltaic power generation system.

In this system, i-TE material can effectively improve the heat conduction between the hydrovoltaic generator and the environment. At the same time, water evaporation consumes heat to provide a reliable temperature gradient, providing a stable temperature difference for the thermoelectric module to produce capacity. In addition, the system can use photothermal conversion to increase the temperature of the hydrovoltaic generator and increase the output voltage to 6.4V.

From the perspective of thermal energy capture and energy conduction, this research provides a new strategy for breaking environmental constraints to improve the performance of hydrovoltaic generators and designing flexible wearable self-energy systems. The relevant research results were published in Nature Communications under the title Enhancing hydrovoltaic power generation through heat conduction effects. The research work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars/General Project, and the National Key Research and Development Program. Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore participated in the research.