When external pressure drives an electrolyte solution in a capillary tube with a charged inner surface, we obtain a streaming potential/current. This effect is also manifested when water flows through the microchannels of a tree, which is driven by capillary pressure and natural evaporation. Thus, by making use of natural evaporation, we took advantage of the anisotropic three-dimensional wood structures to fabricate nanogenerators drawing electricity from the streaming potential/current. As a result, direct current can be harvested continuously, simply through a piece of wood. A 300 mV open-circuit voltage and a 10 μA short-circuit current (I SC) were recorded from a single device, which surpassed the I SC values of most previous works by an order. By connecting five wood nanogenerators in series, a calculator can be completely functional, as a demonstration for practical application.

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Cellulose nanocrystal has been widely used as a reinforcement filler in waterborne coatings, but the application of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) as a filler is difficult because of inhomogeneous dispersion. Herein, a facile and effective strategy to improve the dispersion of CNFs in the polymer matrix by mixing with γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) is presented. The APS dosages 0.08−0.48 wt % to 0.3 wt % CNFs were investigated, and the dosage 0.16% was found to achieve a superior stability of CNFs in the aqueous solution. The APS(0.16%)-modified CNFs were then incorporated and demonstrated distributing uniformly in the waterborne acrylic coating. The as-prepared coatings retain high light transmittance around 90%, and display improved mechanical properties. The composite coatings show a maximum 500% improvement in Young's modulus, two-level improvement in hardness, and 35% reduction in abrasion loss as compared with those of neat coating. These results reveal that APS modification induces the homogeneous dispersion of CNFs in aqueous solution, and turns the CNF into an ideal reinforced filler for waterborne coatings.