Preparation of 1T-WS2/CS conductive fabric and its hydroelectric generation performance
Harvesting energy from the environment has been regarded as a versatile strategy to satisfy increased electric energy demands in widespread applications such as Internet of Things(IoT),wearable systems,electronics and energy-related devices.In recent years,many viable energy harvesting technologies have flourished,such as thermoelectric,photovoltaic,photothermal,piezoelectric,and frictional electric technologies.However,the application of these devices still faces various obstacles,including high environmental dependence,complex manufacturing,and low output performance.Therefore,exploring new types of flexible energy devices with high output performance,low cost and environmental friendliness is indispensable in the current 5G era.As a rich and renewable clean energy source on Earth,natural water(such as water flow,raindrops,water evaporation,and environmental humidity)covers over 70%of the Earth's surface.In recent years,a new energy conversion called the hydrovoltaic effect has been discovered by researchers.When nanostructured materials come into direct contact with the ubiquitous liquid water,they can generate electricity without harmful pollutants that pollute the environment.For instance,Zhang et al.prepared a structure with a wet ion energy conversion route by selectively coating ionic hygroscopic hydrogel on the carbon black surface,and the structure is used for the encryption and display of the humidity electronic information interface(HEII).However,how to realize stable electricity generation with higher output under deformation condition,and get rid of the fixed bulky water tank is the challenges for hydroelectric generators(HEGs)to serve as a portable power supply for flexible and wearable electronics.Textile-based materials have light weight,flexibility and comfort,making them suitable for manufacturing wearable electronic products.In this situation,the integration of electronic products with traditional textiles has led to the emergence of intelligent textiles or electronic textiles,which have completely changed wearable electronic products.Therefore,integrating energy harvesting with textiles or developing textile-based energy devices will provide sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions for wearable human electronics.Furthermore,textile-based hydroelectric generation materials can provide efficient absorption of water molecules and fast ion/electron transport,which has great potential in the unique design of self-powered flexible HEG devices.This article has herein propounded an efficient,flexible,and scalable HEG using 1T phase tungsten disulfide/carbonized silk conductive fabric(1T-WS2/CS)to confront the above challenges.The single HEG of a size of only about 4 cm×1 cm can generate an output voltage of 0.45 V,and an output current of 3.4 μA under an ambient condition(21℃,23%RH).Moreover,the integration of flexible HEG into medical masks for human respiratory monitoring has shown great potential in the field of intelligent wearables.