Moist-Induced Electricity Generation by Electrospun Cellulose Acetate Membranes with Optimized Porous Structures

Abstract

Harvesting energy from moist in the atmosphere has recently been demonstrated as an effective manner for a portable power supply to meet the ever-increasing demands of energy consumption. Porous materials are shown to have great potential in moist-induced electricity generation. Herein, we report moist-induced electricity generation by electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) membranes with optimized porous structures. We show that the pore size and porosity of CA membranes can be readily tuned via a facile compression and annealing process, and the effect of pore features on the output voltages can thus be investigated systematically. We find that, at a relatively high porosity, the electricity-generation performance can be further enhanced by constructing a smaller pore to form more nanochannels. Porous CA membranes, with an optimized porosity of 52.6% and a pore diameter less than 250 nm, are prepared to construct moist-induced electricity generators, which can be applied as breath sensors and can power up calculator operation. The current study provides insights for the construction of porous materials with different pore characteristics for moist-induced electricity generation, especially in the exploration of more efficient and low-cost porous materials for large-scale practical application of the portable power supply.