State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China.
Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (MOE), Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
J Am Chem Soc. 2021 May 26;143(20):7732-7739. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c01831. Epub 2021 May 14.
It is of profound significance with regard to the global energy crisis to develop new techniques and materials that can convert the chemical potential of water into other forms of energy, especially electricity. To address this challenge, we built a new type of energy transduction pathway (humidity gradients → mechanical work → electrical power) using moisture-responsive crystalline materials as the media for energy transduction. Single-crystal data revealed that a flexible zeolitic pyrimidine framework material, , could undergo a reversible structural transformation (β to α phase) with a large unit cell change upon moisture stimulus. Dynamic water vapor sorption analysis showed a gate-opening effect with a steep uptake at as low as 10% relative humidity (RH). The scalable green synthesis approach and the fast water vapor adsorption-desorption kinetics made an excellent sorbent to harvest water from arid air, as verified by real water-harvesting experiments. Furthermore, we created a gradient distribution strategy to fabricate polymer-hybridized mechanical actuators based on that could perform reversible bending deformation upon a variation of the humidity gradient. This mechanical actuator showed remarkable durability and reusability. Finally, coupling the moisture-responsive actuator with a piezoelectric transducer further converted the mechanical work into electrical power. This work offers a new type of moisture-responsive smart material for energy transduction and provides an in-depth understanding of the responsive mechanism at the molecular level.
开发能够将水的化学势能转化为其他形式能量（特别是电能）的新技术和新材料，对于解决全球能源危机具有深远意义。为应对这一挑战，我们利用对湿度敏感的结晶材料作为能量转换介质，构建了一种新型的能量传递途径（湿度梯度→机械功→电能）。单晶数据表明，一种柔性沸石嘧啶骨架材料 ，可以在湿度刺激下发生可逆结构转变（β相到α相），同时伴有较大的单元胞变化。动态水汽吸附分析表明，该材料在低至 10%相对湿度（RH）时具有明显的“开门”效应，水汽吸附量急剧增加。该材料可通过规模化的绿色合成方法和快速的水汽吸附-解吸动力学特性，从干燥空气中高效吸水，实际的水收集实验验证了这一点。此外，我们采用梯度分布策略，基于 制备了聚合物杂化的机械致动器，当湿度梯度发生变化时，该致动器可以实现可逆弯曲变形。这种机械致动器表现出了优异的耐用性和可重复性。最后，我们将湿度响应致动器与压电换能器耦合，进一步将机械能转化为电能。这项工作提供了一种新型的湿度响应智能材料，用于能量转换，并从分子水平深入了解了响应机制。
