A Continuous Gradient Chemical Reduction Strategy of Graphene Oxide for Highly Efficient Evaporation-Driven Electricity Generation

Spontaneously harvesting electricity through a water evaporation process is renewable and environmentally friendly, and provides a promising way for self-powered electronics. However, most of evaporation-driven generators are suffering from a limited power supply for practical use. Herein, a high-performance textile-based evaporation-driven electricity generator based on continuous gradient chemical reduced graphene oxide (CG-rGO@TEEG) is obtained by a continuous gradient chemical reduction strategy. The continuous gradient structure not only greatly enhances the ion concentration difference between the positive and negative electrodes but also significantly optimizes the electrical conductivity of the generator. As a result, the as-prepared CG-rGO@TEEG can generate a voltage of 0.44 V and a considerable current of 590.1 mu A with an optimized power density of 0.55 mW cm(-3) when 50 mu L of NaCl solution is applied. Such scale-up CG-rGO@TEEGs can supply sufficient power to directly drive a commercial clock for more than 2 h in ambient conditions. This work offers a novel approach for efficient clean energy harvesting based on water evaporation.

Automated summary

Harvesting electricity through water evaporation is renewable and environmentally friendly, but current generators have limited power supply. This study presents a high-performance textile-based evaporation-driven electricity generator using continuous gradient chemical reduced graphene oxide (CG-rGO@TEEG). The CG-rGO@TEEG can generate a voltage of 0.44 V and a current of 590.1 mu A with an optimized power density of 0.55 mW cm(-3) when NaCl solution is applied. This work provides a novel approach for efficient clean energy harvesting based on water evaporation.