TY - JOUR
T1 - Scaling up nanoscale water-driven energy conversion into evaporation-driven engines and generators
AU - CHEN, Xi
AU - GOODNIGHT, Davis
AU - GAO, Zhenghan
AU - CAVUSOGLU, Ahmet H.
AU - SABHARWAL, Nina
AU - DELAY, Michael
AU - DRIKS, Adam
AU - SAHIN, Ozgur
N1 - This work is primarily supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), under award no. DE-SC0007999. Additional support was provided by the David and Lucile Packard Fellows Program (preparation and characterization of HYDRA samples, development of the rotary engine). The authors thank Serkan Cabi for helpful comments.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Evaporation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural environment and a dominant form of energy transfer in the Earth's climate. Engineered systems rarely, if ever, use evaporation as a source of energy, despite myriad examples of such adaptations in the biological world. Here, we report evaporation-driven engines that can power common tasks like locomotion and electricity generation. These engines start and run autonomously when placed at air-water interfaces. They generate rotary and piston-like linear motion using specially designed, biologically based artificial muscles responsive to moisture fluctuations. Using these engines, we demonstrate an electricity generator that rests on water while harvesting its evaporation to power a light source, and a miniature car (weighing 0.1 kg) that moves forward as the water in the car evaporates. Evaporation-driven engines may find applications in powering robotic systems, sensors, devices and machinery that function in the natural environment. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
AB - Evaporation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural environment and a dominant form of energy transfer in the Earth's climate. Engineered systems rarely, if ever, use evaporation as a source of energy, despite myriad examples of such adaptations in the biological world. Here, we report evaporation-driven engines that can power common tasks like locomotion and electricity generation. These engines start and run autonomously when placed at air-water interfaces. They generate rotary and piston-like linear motion using specially designed, biologically based artificial muscles responsive to moisture fluctuations. Using these engines, we demonstrate an electricity generator that rests on water while harvesting its evaporation to power a light source, and a miniature car (weighing 0.1 kg) that moves forward as the water in the car evaporates. Evaporation-driven engines may find applications in powering robotic systems, sensors, devices and machinery that function in the natural environment. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84935915844&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ncomms8346
DO - 10.1038/ncomms8346
M3 - Journal Article (refereed)
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 6
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 7346
ER -