ABSTRACT:

Restricted ambient temperature and slow heat replenishment in the phase transition of water molecules severely limit the performance of the evaporation-induced hydrovoltaic generators. Here we demonstrate a heat conduction effect enhanced hydrovoltaic power generator by integrating a flexible ionic thermoelectric gelatin material with a porous dual-size Al₂O₃ hydrovoltaic generator. In the hybrid heat conduction effect enhanced hydrovoltaic power generator, the ionic thermoelectric gelatin material can effectively improve the heat conduction between hydrovoltaic generator and near environment, thus increasing the water evaporation rate to improve the output voltage. Synergistically, hydrovoltaic generator part with continuous water evaporation can induce a constant temperature difference for the thermoelectric generator. Moreover, the system can efficiently achieve solar-to-thermal conversion to raise the temperature difference, accompanied by a stable open circuit voltage of 6.4 V for the hydrovoltaic generator module, the highest value yet.

Full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28689-8