Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Chemin des Verdiers 4, Fribourg, 1700, Switzerland.
Radboud University, Houtlaan 4, Nijmegen, 6525 XZ, Netherlands.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021 Aug;8(15):e2100995. doi: 10.1002/advs.202100995. Epub 2021 May 28.
As wearable technologies redefine the way people exchange information, receive entertainment, and monitor health, the development of sustainable power sources that capture energy from the user's everyday activities garners increasing interest. Electric fishes, such as the electric eel and the torpedo ray, provide inspiration for such a power source with their ability to generate massive discharges of electricity solely from the metabolic processes within their bodies. Inspired by their example, the device presented in this work harnesses electric power from ion gradients established by capturing the carbon dioxide (CO ) from human breath. Upon localized exposure to CO , this novel adaptation of reverse electrodialysis chemically generates ion gradients from a single initial solution uniformly distributed throughout the device instead of requiring the active circulation of two different external solutions. A thorough analysis of the relationship between electrical output and the concentration of carbon capture agent (monoethanolamine, MEA), the amount of CO captured, and the device geometry informs device design. The prototype device presented here harvests enough energy from a breath-generated ion gradient to power small electronic devices, such as a light-emitting diode (LED).
随着可穿戴技术重新定义了人们交流信息、获取娱乐和监测健康的方式，人们对从用户日常活动中捕获能量的可持续电源的开发越来越感兴趣。电鱼，如电鳗和电鳐，通过其仅从体内代谢过程中产生大量电流的能力，为这种电源提供了灵感。受此启发，本工作中提出的装置利用从人体呼吸中捕获的二氧化碳（CO ）建立的离子梯度来产生电能。在局部暴露于 CO 时，这种反向电渗析的新应用会从初始溶液中化学生成离子梯度，而无需主动循环两种不同的外部溶液。对电输出与碳捕获剂（单乙醇胺，MEA）浓度、捕获的 CO 量和装置几何形状之间关系的深入分析为装置设计提供了信息。这里提出的原型装置从呼吸产生的离子梯度中采集了足够的能量来为小型电子设备（如发光二极管（LED））供电。
