Three‐Dimensional Printing of High‐Performance Moisture Power Generators

Abstract

Water‐enabled electricity generation technologies that are highly accessible and fundamentally clean are promising for next‐generation green energy. However, the challenge of scalability in both material processing and device fabrication greatly limits their practical applications. A high‐performance polyelectrolyte moist‐electric generator (MEG), which can be directly 3D printed for massive production and efficient integration, is reported. The printed MEG (p‐MEG) generates a high open‐circuit voltage of 0.8 V and a short‐circuit‐current density of 0.12 mA cm−2 by actively harvesting moisture from humid conditions. The synergistic effects of moisture gradient, ionic concentration gradient, and ion diffusion gradient, which remarkably enhance the driving force to separate ion pairs and notably facilitate the directional ion transport, are responsible for the high power generation performance of p‐MEG, as further backed up by in situ ion dynamics investigations and molecular simulations. When connected in serial and parallel, hundreds of p‐MEGs can deliver a high voltage of more than 180 V and a current of more than 1 mA. A constructed “moisture‐powered cup lamp” that lights up for hours further demonstrates the practicability of p‐MEG. This work provides a feasible and scalable 3D printing approach for the next‐generation environment‐adaptive self‐powered system.

Hierarchical Bilayer Polyelectrolyte Ion Paper Conductor for Moisture-Induced Power Generation

“…We designed two identical porous PMMA plates with a hole diameter of 3.0 mm as the double-fixed plates to sandwich the bilayer ionic paper connected to the open grid electrode (Cu, Ag, Ti) on each side (Figures 2f and S5), converse to the normally designed open−close electrode assembly. 16,23,24,40 We verified the superiority in power generation of this bilayer ionic paper by comparing six different generator configurations, as shown in Figure 2g, including a commercial filter paper (1), LiCl-paper (2) (obtained by soaking the pristine filter paper in 8.0 wt % LiCl followed by freezing-drying), LNP (3), QC-LNP (4) (coating only the QC polyelectrolyte onto one side of LNP), AMC-LNP (5) (coating only the AMC polyelectrolyte onto one side of LNP), and the bilayer polyelectrolyte ion paper conductor (6). Figures 2h,i and S6a show that the voltage of the commercial filter paper sharply decreased from ∼0.08 to ∼0.01 V while the current remained nearly zero.…”

Moisture-Enabled Electric Generators Based on Electrospinning Silk Fibroin/Poly(ethylene oxide) Film Impregnated with Gradient-Structured Sericin

“…Moisture-enabled electric generators (MEGs), − a class of green-energy generators, convert moisture from the air into electricity and have attracted immense attention. , MEGs were first reported in 2015 and have made significant progress since then. , The MEGs that are produced, such as graphene, metal oxide nanomaterials, biofibers, and polymers, have excellent properties. , The massively integrated design allows the MEGs to achieve output voltages of up to 1000 V . It can be used to drive off-the-shelf electronic devices such as calculators, LEDs, watches, and more. − …”

Emerging electrochemical humidity sensors for zero power consumption and self-powered humidity detection: a perspective

“…Therefore, power generation humidity sensors with zero power consumption and self-powered potential have received widespread attention and become a cutting-edge research hotspot in the field of humidity sensors. At present, a series of power generation humidity sensors based on triboelectricity/piezoelectricity/electromagnetism (mechanical energy), 12–19 ion diffusion (ion gradient), 20–23 and electrochemical 24−41 principles have been developed. Among them, the power generation humidity sensor based on triboelectricity/piezoelectricity/electromagnetism effects has good humidity sensing and power generation performances, but it relies on external mechanical force during humidity detection.…”

“…20 In recent years, the ion diffusion type power generation humidity sensor has developed rapidly, but there are still challenges such as narrow humidity sensing range and low power generation. 20–23…”