title: Water-evaporation-induced electricity with nanostructured carbon materials.
abstract: Water evaporation is a ubiquitous natural process that harvests thermal energy from the ambient environment. It has previously been utilized in a number of applications including the synthesis of nanostructures and the creation of energy-harvesting devices. Here, we show that water evaporation from the surface of a variety of nanostructured carbon materials can be used to generate electricity. We find that evaporation from centimetre-sized carbon black sheets can reliably generate sustained voltages of up to 1 V under ambient conditions. The interaction between the water molecules and the carbon layers and moreover evaporation-induced water flow within the porous carbon sheets are thought to be key to the voltage generation. This approach to electricity generation is related to the traditional streaming potential, which relies on driving ionic solutions through narrow gaps, and the recently reported method of moving ionic solutions across graphene surfaces, but as it exploits the natural process of evaporation and uses cheap carbon black it could offer advantages in the development of practical devices.
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Guobin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Tianpeng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
authors.forename: Wenwen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fei
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Yuanzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Longyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
authors.forename: Shaozhi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
authors.forename: Wanlin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo