title: Induced Potential in Porous Carbon Films through Water Vapor Absorption.
abstract: Sustainable electrical potential of tens of millivolts can be induced by water vapor adsorption on a piece of porous carbon film that has two sides with different functional group contents. Integrated experiments, and Monte Carlo and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the induced potential originates from the nonhomogeneous distribution of functional groups along the film, especially carboxy groups. Sufficient adsorbed water molecules in porous carbon facilitate the release of protons from the carboxy groups, resulting in a potential drop across the carbon film because of the concentration difference of the released free protons on the two sides. The potential utilization of such a phenomenon is also demonstrated by a self-powered humidity sensor.
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Peihua
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tianpeng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guobin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P.R. China. jun.zhou@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: adsorption; humidity; porous carbon; proton transfer