In 2014, Guo Wanlin et al. Of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics first discovered that water droplets containing Na
+ ions can generate electrical signals when they move on the surface of monolayer graphene, and the phenomenon that carbon nanomaterials can stably output electrical energy through interaction with water is called "water volt effect"
[20]. As shown in Figure 1A, when a droplet of NaCl aqueous solution with a concentration of 0. 6 mol/L slides on the surface of single-layer graphene, an open-circuit voltage of up to 0. 15 mV can be output, and if the sliding direction is changed, a voltage signal in the opposite direction can be output, while a stationary droplet cannot generate a streaming potential. Based on the above experimental phenomena and the calculation results of density functional theory, they further proposed the theory of electric double layer pseudocapacitance: when a NaCl aqueous droplet is in contact with a single layer of graphene,The Na
+ in the droplet is enriched on the graphene surface due to the 2 eV adsorption energy between the Na
+ and the conjugated electrons on the graphene surface.With the increase of the concentration of the adsorbed Na
+, a positive electric layer is formed.In order to maintain electrical neutrality, the conjugated electrons are aggregated on the surface of graphene to form a negative electron layer, thus forming an electric double layer pseudocapacitance. When the droplet is stationary, the charge distribution at the graphene/droplet interface is balanced, and there is no potential difference between the solid/liquid interface. When the droplet moves on the surface of the single-layer graphene, the Na
+ in the droplet at the front end of the displacement direction continuously adsorbs free electrons on the surface of the graphene to charge the pseudocapacitance and generate a high potential; On the contrary, the Na
+ at the rear end of the droplet continuously desorbs from the electrons and makes the electrons adsorbed on the surface of graphene return to their original position, which makes the pseudocapacitance discharge and produce a low potential, and the streaming potential generated at the front and back ends of the droplet is the fundamental reason for the conversion of "drag energy" into electrical energy. This work pioneered the discovery of the phenomenon of ion droplets sliding on the surface of two-dimensional carbon materials to output electric energy, which broadened people's understanding of the water potential generated by carbon nanomaterials. At the same time, the advantage of increasing current and potential through series-parallel circuit design provides a new idea for capturing energy contained in liquid water such as rainwater and seawater in a large area, and also opens the prelude to the research of "graphene + water = electricity"
[38⇓⇓~41]. Inspired by this work, our group designed and fabricated reduced graphene oxide electrodes using hot pressed film technology and integrated them with flexible dye-sensitized solar cells to construct the first prototype hybrid energy harvesting solar cell device that simultaneously converts solar energy and raindrop water kinetic energy.A photoelectric conversion efficiency of 6.53% was obtained under AM 1.5G standard solar illumination, and an open-circuit voltage of 150 μV/drop and a short-circuit current of 0.5 μA/drop were output under simulated rainfall conditions (Figure 1b)
[39]. The results show that the cation/electron double layer pseudocapacitance is formed by the adsorption of the delocalized electrons in the π-conjugated structure of graphene and the cations in the raindrop. At the same time, the graphene film has a certain hydrophobicity, and the process of spreading and shrinking occurs after the raindrop falls on the surface of the graphene film. The cations at the solid/liquid/gas interface continuously adsorb with free electrons to form pseudocapacitance when the raindrop spreads, and desorb with electrons when the raindrop shrinks, thus outputting pulsed current and voltage. Cyclic voltammetry detected that the simulated raindrop formed a closed quasi-rectangular cyclic voltammetry curve during the spreading/shrinking process (as shown in Figure 1C), and the rectangular area and pseudocapacitive capacity increased linearly with the spreading area, which provided an experimental basis for the nature of the electric double layer pseudocapacitive
[40]. It is further found that the raindrop falling time interval, falling speed and cation concentration have important effects on the electrical signal output: (1) The conjugated electrons of graphene are not reset before the raindrop completes the contraction process, and the subsequent raindrop falling at this stage will reduce the pseudocapacitance intensity of the electric double layer, thereby weakening the electrical properties; (2) The higher the speed of raindrops falling on the surface of graphene film, the faster the spreading and contraction of raindrops, which will produce higher streaming potential; (3) High concentration of cations can adsorb with more free electrons to form strong pseudocapacitance, which further improves the electrical output. This pioneering work lays the foundation for the construction of hybrid energy harvesting solar cells based on the hydrovoltaic and photovoltaic coupling effects. Subsequently, our group also found similar experimental results in the study of hybrid energy harvesting solar cells based on graphene-carbon black/polytetrafluoroethylene (G-CB/PTFE) composite electrodes, and the current and voltage reached the peak when the G-CB content was 95 wt%, as shown in Figure 1 d
[41]. The reason is that the conductive polymer composite can be prepared by doping conductive G-CB into PTFE insulating matrix, and the conductivity of the composite is discontinuous in a certain range of G-CB concentration. When the concentration of G-CB reaches a certain value, the conductivity will change suddenly, indicating that the dispersion state of G-CB nanoparticles in the PTFE matrix changes suddenly, that is, G-CB forms a continuous conductive percolation network in PTFE. Therefore, 95wt% G-CB has formed a complete percolation network, which is conducive to electron conduction (Fig. 1e).