Energy harvesting is a topic of intense interest that aims to convert ambient forms of energy such as mechanical motion, light and heat, which are otherwise wasted, into useful energy. In many cases the energy harvester or nanogenerator converts motion, heat or light into electrical energy, which is subsequently rectified and stored within capacitors for applications such as wireless and self-powered sensors or low-power electronics. This review covers the new and emerging area that aims to directly couple energy harvesting materials and devices with electro-chemical systems. The harvesting approaches to be covered include pyroelectric, piezoelectric, triboelectric, flexoelectric, thermoelectric and photovoltaic effects. These are used to influence a variety of electro-chemical systems such as applications related to water splitting, catalysis, corrosion protection, degradation of pollutants, disinfection of bacteria and material synthesis. Comparisons are made between the range harvesting approaches and the modes of operation are described. Future directions for the development of electro-chemical harvesting systems are highlighted and the potential for new applications and hybrid approaches are discussed.

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The rGO–MoO3nanosphere hybrid synthesized exceeds the performance of high quality commercial Pt/C in terms of electrocatalytic activity, stability, durability and CO tolerance.

This paper reports a simple and inexpensive method for preparing fine scale (Ø 260 μm) and high-density Magnéli phase (TinO2n−1) conductive ceramic fibres.

First time, four distinct types of Lead Magnesium Titanate (PMT) perovskites including spheres, flakes, hierarchical flower and thin microbelts shaped were finely tuned via facile solution method to develop cost effective and high performance photoanode material for water splitting. The influence of solvent effects during structural tuning, purity, morphology, optical obsorption, structural phase transition and stoichiometric formation of prepared Lead Magnesium Titanate perovskites has been discussed in detail. Remarkably, thin microbelts structured PMT perovskite (PMTT) exhibited an excellent water splitting performance and it is more sensitive to the illuminated visible light. Owing to the unique structural features, the photoconversion efficiency value of PMTT perovskite is ~3.9, 3.54, 2.85 and 1.52 times higher than those of other prepared PMT perovskites including pristine PbTiO 3. The excellent water splitting performance of PMTT (thin microbelts) may be ascribed to the remarkable structural features that include a large surface area, high optical absorbance, more active sites and high interface area of the microbelts, which provide large contact areas between the electrolyte and highly active materials for electrolyte diffusion and a rapid route for charge transfer with minimal diffusion resistance. In addition, each thin microbelt is directly in contact with the Ni foam substrate, which can also shorten the diffusion path for the electrons. The demonstrated approach paves the way to significantly low-cost and high-throughput production of next generation, high performance and highly active water splitting perovskite photocatalyst.