Advanced emerging ambient energy harvesting technologies enabled by transition metal dichalcogenides: Opportunity and challenge

Environmental pollution and global warming caused by fossil fuels have become increasingly serious issues. Therefore, it is urgent to explore novel strategies to obtain sustainable, renewable and clean energy. Fortunately, ambient energy harvesting technologies, which are receiving increasing attention, provide an optimal solution. Additionally, the investigation of two-dimensional (2D) materials represented by transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) significantly facilitates the advancement of ambient energy harvesting technologies due to their unique properties, enabling the application of ambient energy harvesting. Herein, we summarized recent advances in the application of TMDs in thermal energy harvesting, osmotic energy harvesting, mechanical energy harvesting, water energy harvesting and radiofrequency energy harvesting respectively. In the meanwhile, we listed some representative structure and device optimization strategies for enhancing the energy conversion performance of these ambient energy harvesters, aiming to provide valuable insights for future investigations towards further optimization. Finally, we highlight the pressing issues currently faced in the application of the TMDs ambient energy harvesting technologies and propose some potential solutions to these challenges. We aimed to provide a comprehensive review in the applications of the energy harvesting technologies, in order to provide innovative insights for optimizing existing TMDs-based technologies.

Hybrid hydrovoltaic electricity generation driven by water evaporation

Water evaporation is a ubiquitous natural process exploiting thermal energy from ambient environment.Hydrovoltaic technologies emerged in recent years offer one prospective route to generate electricity from water evaporation,which has long been overlooked.Herein,we developed a hybrid hydrovoltaic generator driven by natural water evaporation,integrating an“evaporation motor”with an evaporation-electricity device and a droplet-electricity device.A rotary motion of the“evaporation motor”relies on phase change of ethanol driven by water-evaporation induced temperature gradient.This motion enables the evaporation-electricity device to work under a beneficial water-film operation mode to produce output of~4 V and~0.2μA,as well as propels the droplet-electricity device to convert mechanical energy into pulsed output of~100 V and~0.2 mA.As different types of hydrovoltaic devices require distinctive stimuli,it was challenging to make them work simultaneously,especially under one single driving force.We here for the first time empower two types of hydrovoltaic devices solely by omnipresent water evaporation.Therefore,this work presents a new pathway to exploiting water evaporation-associated ambient thermal energy and provides insights on developing hybrid hydrovoltaic generators.