Generating Electricity from Natural Evaporation Using PVDF Thin Films Incorporating Nanocomposite Materials

Ariel Ma, Jian Yu and William Uspal
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Ariel Ma: Iolani School, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Jian Yu: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
William Uspal: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Natural evaporation has recently come under consideration as a viable source of renewable energy. Demonstrations of the validity of the concept have been reported for devices incorporating carbon-based nanocomposite materials. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using polymer thin films to generate electricity from natural evaporation. We considered a polymeric system based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). Porous PVDF films were created by incorporating a variety of nanocomposite materials into the polymer structure through a simple mixing procedure. Three nanocomposite materials were considered: carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, and silica. The evaporation-induced electricity generation was confirmed experimentally under various ambient conditions. Among the nanocomposite materials considered, mesoporous silica (SBA-15) was found to outperform the other two materials in terms of open-circuit voltage, and graphene oxide generated the highest short-circuit current. It was found that the nanocomposite material content in the PVDF film plays an important role: on the one hand, if particles are too few in number, the number of channels will be insufficient to support a strong capillary flow; on the other hand, an excessive number of particles will suppress the flow due to excessive water absorption underneath the surface. We show that the device can be modeled as a simple circuit powered by a current source with excellent agreement between the theoretical predictions and experimental data.

Keywords: evaporation; electricity generation; particles; PVDF composites; streaming potential (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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