Simultaneous atmospheric water production and 24-hour power generation enabled by moisture-induced energy harvesting

Water and electricity scarcity are two global challenges, especially in arid and remote areas. Harnessing ubiquitous moisture and sunlight for water and power generation is a sustainable route to address these challenges. This work reports a moisture-induced energy harvesting strategy to realize efficient sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) and 24-hour thermo-electric power generation (TEPG) by synergistically utilizing moisture-induced sorption/desorption heats of SAWH, solar energy in the daytime and radiative cooling in the nighttime. The synergistic effects significantly improve all-day thermoelectric power density (~346%) and accelerate atmospheric water harvesting compared with conventional designs. A hybrid SAWH-TEPG device exhibits high water production of 750 g m−2, together with impressive thermoelectric power density up to 685 mW m−2 in the daytime and 21 mW m−2 in the nighttime. This work provides a promising approach to realizing sustainable water production and power generation at any time and anywhere.

Tingxian Li, Minqiang Wu, Jiaxing Xu, Ruxue Du, Taisen Yan, Pengfei Wang, Zhaoyuan Bai, Ruzhu Wang, Siqi Wang