Researchers have revealed a new device that can generate electricity day or night and under different weather conditions.
The fact that it can work at night or in cloudy conditions makes it a viable power source for small devices such as outdoor sensors that need to be on all the time.
Lead researcher Jing Liu, from Jimei University in China, said that the device had some advantages over batteries, which have a limited capacity and require regular recharging or replacement.
The device is a kind of thermoelectric generator (TEG), a solid-state device that uses temperature differences to generate electricity without the use of moving parts.
When a thermoelectric material is exposed to different temperatures, electrons flow from the hot part to the cold, resulting in an electric current being generated.
This new TEG, detailed in the journal Optics Express, is able to generate its own heat and cold to produce electricity even when it is not exposed to direct sunlight.
It utilises a component known as an ultra-broadband solar absorber (UBSA) to capture sunlight.
This heats one side of the device, while another component known as a planar radiative cooling emitter (RCE) simultaneously releases heat to cool the other side.
Both components can be attached to a flexible substrate, which could potentially be useful for building the TEG into wearable technology.
Generator was tested in a range of different conditions
The combination of solar heating and radiative cooling allows the device to generate electricity in any conditions, though it is more effective in sunlight.
The temperature difference is considerably smaller out of sunlight, but there is still a difference that can be used to generate power.
The researchers tested their prototype in a variety of outdoor conditions and found that it could continue to generate throughout the day and night and in cloudy weather.
It achieved its highest output of 166.2 mV, which is enough to power a small device, under clear daytime conditions.
This dropped to 95 mV in cloudy conditions during the day and 14.7 mV during clear nighttime.
Liu said that the unique design of the team’s TEG enabled uninterrupted power generation that could help improve access to critical services, particularly in remote or undeveloped areas.
Liu added that it could be used for a wide range of applications, from sensors to wearables, in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.
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