Emerging hydrovoltaic technology

Zhang, Zhuhua; Li, Xuemei; Yin, Jun; Xu, Ying; Fei, Wenwen; Xue, Minmin; Wang, Qin; Zhou, Jianxin; Guo, Wei

doi:10.1038/s41565-018-0228-6

Cited by 522 publications

(476 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…[ 153 ] Studies have demonstrated that water flow for evaporation can induce electric current, which is illustrated in Figure 15e, and produce hydrovoltaic energy. [ 154,155 ] In addition to this, energy it is also possible to generate energy in the condensation of water vapor by using a triboelectric generator (Figure 15f). [ 37 ] Another recent report has revealed that photothermal effect has the ability to enhance capacitance of supercapacitors.…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure Architecting for Salt‐Rejecting Solar Interfacial Desalination to Achieve High‐Performance Evaporation With In Situ Energy Generation

et al. 2020

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requirement has given rise to research thrusts being focused on the development of solar-driven evaporation based desalination technologies. [4][5][6][7] The research on using solar energy in the desalination process has a long history. [3,8,9] In a traditional singleslope basin-like solar still (Figure 1a), saline water is heated and subsequently evaporated by directly exposing to solar radiation. Solar energy is absorbed and converted into thermal energy by a black light-absorbing liner that is situated at the bottom of the solar basin. [10] Due to this design, the solar absorber is immersed in bulk seawater and it hardly receives a fraction of the incoming solar radiation owing to poor light penetration through the thick water layer. Furthermore, the produced heat is easily dissipated into the bulk water, and further lost to the surroundings through water surface radiation, convection and conduction. Due to the above reasons, the resulting solar-tosteam conversion efficiency is inevitably low. Nanoparticle dispersed fluid was then demonstrated to harness solar energy and found to be a great boon to direct water vapor generation. [11,12] A solar conversion efficiency of up to ≈70% can be possibly achieved because heat loss to bulk water is mitigated ( Figure 1b). [13,14] However, research on this advancement didn't last because of the development of solar interfacial heating strategy, which is shown in Figure 1c. The concept of interfacial evaporation was first put forth in 2014 by two reports simultaneously, [15,16] and received a surge of attention and interest immediately in the following years. The most prominent feature of solar interfacial evaporation lies in the position of the solar absorber, which is at the interface between saline liquid and the above air. This special configuration not only minimizes heat loss from the solar absorber to bulk water, but also provides significantly more surface area for prompt vapor release. Also, solar radiation is photothermally localized at the surface of solar absorber, giving rise to high surface temperature, which enables fast heat transfer to water. With it, water transported from reservoir can be heated and evaporated immediately to achieve a higher rate of steam generation. In addition to the differences in heating strategies, it should be noted that all the solar stills follow the same evaporation-condensation route for desalination and clean water collection, and to this end, a similar device structure (e.g., solar still with sloping cover) is usually employed.The past few years have witnessed a rapid development of solar-driven interfacial evaporation, a promising technology for low-cost water desalination. As of today, solar-to-steam conversion efficiencies close to 100% or even beyond the limit are becoming increasingly achievable in virtue of unique photothermal materials and structures. Herein, the cutting-edge approaches are summarized, and their mechanisms for photothermal structure architecting are uncovered in order to achieve ultrahigh conversion e...

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Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure Architecting for Salt‐Rejecting Solar Interfacial Desalination to Achieve High‐Performance Evaporation With In Situ Energy Generation

et al. 2020

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“…Water covers over 70% of the Earth's surface, which means it is abundant and widely available. Water contains enormous energy (35% of the solar energy received by the Earth, 10 15 W) in a variety of forms, such as chemical, thermal, and kinetic energy [1]. The chemical energy is harnessed through water splitting under the assistance of electricity or photocatalysts [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the progress of nanomaterials and nanotechnology, a new strategy based on hydrovoltaic effect (HV) has been developed in recent years [1]. In solar cells, the electron-hole pairs are generated by the absorption of photons with higher energy than the bandgap of semiconductor [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…HV effect is analogous to the photovoltaic effect described as above. For HV effect, the potential is generated through the interaction between nanostructured materials and water molecules [1]. The form of water can be liquid, droplet, moisture, and evaporation [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The diffusion layer electrically screen the stern layer through coulomb interaction. The blue line is the electrical potential curve around the solid surface [1]. (c) Illustration of induced potential by drawing a droplet on graphene.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Emerging of Hydrovoltaic Materials as a Future Technology: A Case Study for China

Xie¹,

Wang²,

Chen³

et al. 2020

Green Energy and Environment

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Water contains tremendous energy in various forms, but very little of this energy has yet been harvested. Nanostructured materials can generate electricity by water-nanomaterial interaction, a phenomenon referred to as hydrovoltaic effect, which potentially extends the technical capability of water energy harvesting. In this chapter, starting by describing the fundamental principle of hydrovoltaic effect, including water-carbon interactions and fundamental mechanisms of harvesting water energy with nanostructured materials, experimental advances in generating electricity from water flows, waves, natural evaporation, and moisture are then reviewed. We further discuss potential applications of hydrovoltaic technologies, analyze main challenges in improving the energy conversion efficiency and scaling up the output power, and suggest prospects for developments of the emerging technology, especially in China.

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Wetting Stability of Supported Graphene in Ambient Environment

Long

et al. 2022

Adv Eng Mater

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The evaluation of the wetting stability of supported graphene in ambient environment is important for its practical applications. Herein, it is shown by experiments that a monolayer graphene coating can alter the water contact angles of various substrates to a converged value around 80–85° in ambient environment, almost independent of substrate materials, graphene layer numbers as well as long‐term air exposure up to 14 months. First‐principles calculations and van der Waals modeling indicate that a monolayer graphene is sufficient to alter both short‐range and long‐range interactions of a water molecule with various substrates to a converged state. The stable wettability of graphene would facilitate its practical applications, ranging from functional coatings, liquid gated electronic devices, and other areas requiring its exposure to water.

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Emerging hydrovoltaic technology

Cited by 522 publications

References 127 publications

Structure Architecting for Salt‐Rejecting Solar Interfacial Desalination to Achieve High‐Performance Evaporation With In Situ Energy Generation

Structure Architecting for Salt‐Rejecting Solar Interfacial Desalination to Achieve High‐Performance Evaporation With In Situ Energy Generation

The Emerging of Hydrovoltaic Materials as a Future Technology: A Case Study for China

Wetting Stability of Supported Graphene in Ambient Environment

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