Rational Design of MOF‐Based Hybrid Nanomaterials for Directly Harvesting Electric Energy from Water Evaporation

Abstract

The continuous exploration of clean‐energy technology is critical for the sustainable development of society. The recent work on the electric energy harvesting from water evaporation has made a significant contribution to the utilization of clean energy for self‐powering systems. Here, a novel metal–organic‐framework‐based hybrid nanomaterial is delicately designed and synthesized by the growth of UIO‐66 nanoparticles on 2D AlOOH nanoflakes. Due to the combined merits from the 2D morphology, which is inherited from the AlOOH nanoflakes, and the high surface potential, which originates from the UIO‐66 nanoparticles, the device made of the AlOOH/UIO‐66 hybrid nanomaterials can harvest electric energy from natural water evaporation. An open‐circuit voltage of 1.63 ± 0.10 V can be achieved on the prototype devices made of the hybrid nanomaterial. As a proof‐of‐concept application, a small electric appliance, e.g., a digital calculator, is powered up by a 3 × 3 device array connected in a combined series–parallel configuration.

Polyaniline‐Coated MOFs Nanorod Arrays for Efficient Evaporation‐Driven Electricity Generation and Solar Steam Desalination

“…The corresponding water evaporation rate and generated maximum output power density were competitive, even superior, to that of most reported materials (Table S5, Supporting Information). [ 3,8,12–16,18,19,39 ] To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on a non‐carbon based material for seawater desalination and evaporation‐driven electricity generation simultaneously.…”

“…Thus, the material suitable for evaporation‐driven streaming potential should have an appropriate pore size for ion and water transportation and a high surface potential for the formation of overlapped EDLs. [ 12 ]…”

“…Recently, due to the high porosity, charged surface, and hydrophilicity of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) based materials, MOFs have been considered to be a promising candidate for evaporation‐driven electricity generation such as in Ref. [ 12 ] . However, most of MOFs are regarded as “water sensitive”, namely not stable in a water environment.…”

Perspective for removing volatile organic compounds during solar‐driven water evaporation toward water production

“…Developing a low‐cost solar‐powered device, such as solar evaporation system, to produce fresh water from saline, could be an ideal solution for both water and energy supply. Great effort has been made in many aspects, such as developing new materials with higher light‐to‐heat conversion efficiency, 2 designing water channel, 3 optimizing system salt crystallization resistance, 4,5 carrying out system thermal management to achieve higher light‐to‐vapor efficiency, 6,7 using solar photothermal water purification technology to decontaminate industrial wastewater, 8 investigating the evaporation‐driven electricity generation, and so forth 9–11 . Nowadays, photothermal evaporation system is developing toward higher water yield and higher efficiency in the continuous optimization process.…”

Sustainable power generation for at least one month from ambient humidity using unique nanofluidic diode

“…In recent years, water-based power generators have become a promising power generation technology due to the abundance, cleanliness and sustainability of water. Numerous water-powered generators using pure liquid water and aqueous solution as energy source have emerged [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] , relying on streaming potential 8-13 , dragging potential [14][15][16] , waving potential [17][18][19][20] and triboelectric potential 1,20−22 etc. However, these devices require continuous or periodic water supplementation, which limits their installation location for practical use.…”