Liu Qun, Guo Panwang, Zhang Xinyu, Ren Hehe, Liang Jing, Li Quancai, Tang Weinan, Wu Wei
Laboratory of Printable Functional Materials and Printed Electronics, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, P. R. China.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2025 Feb;12(6):e2413779. doi: 10.1002/advs.202413779. Epub 2024 Dec 17.
Harvesting sustainable clean energy from natural water evaporation holds great promise to provide continuous power for portable and wearable electronics. However, poor portability and complex fabrication processes hinder the low-cost and large-scale integration of flexible evaporation-driven electricity generators (FEEGs). Herein, a fully-printed flexible evaporation-driven generator (PFEEG) is developed. Utilizing custom-formulated functional inks, the asymmetric structures, current collectors, and hygroscopic water storage units can be manufactured by a patternable, scalable, and layer-by-layer deposition technique of screen printing. Thus, a PFEEG unit (0.5 cm × 1 cm × 38 µm) can generate a voltage of ≈0.8 V over a wide relative humidity (RH) range from 20% to 90%, and a maximum power density of 1.55 µW cm at 70% RH. An array of 200 PFEEGs connected in series or parallel can produce voltages up to 152.41 V or a current up to 1.02 mA. Furthermore, the scalable PFEEG array can not only be seamlessly connected with the printed flexible circuit but can also be integrated with a humidity sensor and display arrays to form a self-powered printed flexible sensing system. This work presents a practical strategy for continuous power supply of portable and wearable electronics.
从自然水蒸发中获取可持续清洁能源，有望为便携式和可穿戴电子产品提供持续电力。然而，便携性差和制造工艺复杂阻碍了柔性蒸发驱动发电机（FEEG）的低成本大规模集成。在此，开发了一种全印刷柔性蒸发驱动发电机（PFEEG）。利用定制配方的功能墨水，可通过丝网印刷的可图案化、可扩展且逐层沉积技术制造不对称结构、集流体和吸湿储水单元。因此，一个PFEEG单元（0.5厘米×1厘米×38微米）在20%至90%的宽相对湿度（RH）范围内可产生约0.8伏的电压，在70%RH时最大功率密度为1.55微瓦/平方厘米。由200个PFEEG串联或并联组成的阵列可产生高达152.41伏的电压或高达1.02毫安的电流。此外，可扩展的PFEEG阵列不仅可以与印刷柔性电路无缝连接，还可以与湿度传感器和显示阵列集成，形成自供电印刷柔性传感系统。这项工作为便携式和可穿戴电子产品的持续供电提出了一种实用策略。
