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Direct Electricity Generation Mediated by Molecular Interactions with Low Dimensional Carbon Materials—A Mechanistic Perspective
Author(s) -
Liu Albert Tianxiang,
Zhang Ge,
Cottrill Anton L.,
Kunai Yuichiro,
Kaplan Amir,
Liu Pingwei,
Koman Volodymyr B.,
Strano Michael S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201802212
Subject(s) - nanotechnology , microscale chemistry , energy harvesting , materials science , energy storage , electricity , engineering physics , computer science , energy (signal processing) , electrical engineering , physics , power (physics) , engineering , mathematics education , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Next‐generation off‐the‐grid electronic systems call for alternative modes of energy harvesting. The past two decades have witnessed the evolution of a wide spectrum of low dimensional carbon materials with extraordinary physical and chemical properties, ideal for microscale electrical energy storage and generation. Tremendous progress has been made in harnessing the energy associated with the interactions between these nanostructured carbon substrates and the surrounding molecular phases, subsequently converting them into useful electricity. This review summarizes the important theoretical and experimental milestones the field has reached to date, and further classifies these energy harvesting processes based on underlying physics, into five mechanistically distinct classes—phonon coupling, Coulombic scattering, electrokinetic streaming, asymmetric doping, and capacitive discharging. With a special mechanistic focus, the authors hope to resolve the fundamental attributes shared by this diverse array of molecular scale energy harvesting schemes, offer perspectives on key challenges, and ultimately establish design principles that guide further device optimization.