Generating sustainable electricity from ambient humidity and natural evaporation has attracted tremendous interest recently as it requires no extra mechanical energy input and is deployable across all weather and geography conditions. Here, we present a device prototype for enhanced power generation from ambient humidity. This prototype uses both heterogenous materials assembled from a LiCl-loaded cellulon paper to facilitate moisture adsorption and a carbon-black-loaded cellulon paper to promote water evaporation. Exposing such a centimeter-sized device to ambient humidity can produce voltages of around 0.78 V and a current of around 7.5 μA, both of which can be sustained for more than 10 days. The enhanced electric output and durability are due to the continuous water flow that is directed by evaporation through numerous, negatively charged channels within the cellulon papers. The voltage and current exhibit an excellent scaling behavior upon device integration to sufficiently power commercial devices including even cell phones. The results open a promising prospect of sustainable electricity generation based on a synergy between spontaneous moisture adsorption and water evaporation.

This tutorial review provides a fundamental understanding of different mechanisms, material selection, device optimization and applications of hydrovoltaic technology and provides a systematic collection of recent advances.

and Astronautics (NUAA) in 2016, after which he worked in the University of Manchester as a research associate for 3 years. Then, he joined NUAA in 2019 as a professor. His research focuses on surface/interface interaction of nanomaterials and their applications.

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