Issue 31, 2020

Water-responsive materials for sustainable energy applications

Abstract

Water-responsive (WR) materials that mechanically change their volume in response to changes in relative humidity or a water/humidity gradient can generate significantly higher energy actuation compared to natural muscles and conventional actuators. Recent proof-of-concept demonstrations have shown the great potential of using WR materials as high performance actuator components for various energy-related applications. For example, evaporation-driven engines which are enabled by spore based WR materials directly harvest energy from natural evaporation of water and convert it into mechanical work and electricity, highlighting the possibility of using this untapped energy source of evaporation as an additional option for clean and low-cost energy generation and storage. Despite the growing interest in these examples, research on WR materials and their applications is still in the early stage and faces multiple challenges. Namely, the fundamental mechanisms that engender a material's water-responsiveness are unclear. Additionally, current systems remain difficult to scale up, and the integration of WR materials into modern engineering systems is a critical design challenge. Here, we review the current developments in this emerging category of WR materials. We discuss up-to-date studies on both natural and synthetic WR materials, which include their processing, characterization methods, and scientific and technical challenges that can possibly be overcome in future research endeavours.

Graphical abstract: Water-responsive materials for sustainable energy applications

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
12 Mar 2020
Accepted
05 May 2020
First published
05 May 2020

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020,8, 15227-15244

Author version available

Water-responsive materials for sustainable energy applications

Y. Park and X. Chen, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 15227 DOI: 10.1039/D0TA02896G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements