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  • Review Article
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Emerging hydrovoltaic technology

Abstract

Water contains tremendous energy in a variety of forms, but very little of this energy has yet been harnessed. Nanostructured materials can generate electricity on interaction with water, a phenomenon that we term the hydrovoltaic effect, which potentially extends the technical capability of water energy harvesting and enables the creation of self-powered devices. In this Review, starting by describing fundamental properties of water and of water–solid interfaces, we discuss key aspects pertaining to water–carbon interactions and basic mechanisms of harvesting water energy with nanostructured materials. Experimental advances in generating electricity from water flows, waves, natural evaporation and moisture are then reviewed to show the correlations in their basic mechanisms and the potential for their integration towards harvesting energy from the water cycle. We further discuss potential device applications of hydrovoltaic technologies, analyse main challenges in improving the energy conversion efficiency and scaling up the output power, and suggest prospects for developments of the emerging technology.

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Fig. 1: Fundamental theories of water energy harvesting and water–solid interactions.
Fig. 2: Carbon nanomaterials and carbon–water interactions.
Fig. 3: Electricity generation related to electrokinetic effects.
Fig. 4: Vision of harvesting energy from the whole water cycle by carbon nanostructures.
Fig. 5: Potential device applications of water energy harvesting.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 51535005, 11772153, 51472117, 51702159), the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures (MCMS-0416K01, MCMS-0416G01, MCMS-0417G01), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NP2017101, NE2018002), a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the support of the Sugon Scholarship. Z.Z. also acknowledges the support of Youth Thousand Talents Program.

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Zhang, Z., Li, X., Yin, J. et al. Emerging hydrovoltaic technology. Nature Nanotech 13, 1109–1119 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0228-6

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