Moisture-Induced Energy Harvesters by Water Harvesting for Continuous Arid Environment Operations

This study presents a novel moisture-induced energy harvester designed for the operation in arid environments. The dual-stage system integrates a water harvester (WH) to capture atmospheric moisture and an energy harvester (EH) to produce electricity. Key advancements of this work include: (1) continuous moisture-to-DC current outputs for more than four days, (2) operational under a low humidity (20%) condition, and (3) an ultrahigh energy density of 12.3 mJ/cm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> − 400 times higher than those of conventional moisture-based energy harvesters without using water harvesters. The proposed strategy bridges the gap between atmospheric water harvesting and power generation technologies, providing a transformative solution for self-sustaining devices operating under harsh environmental constraints. As such, this work enhances energy harvesting devices as promising power sources in applications such as Internet-of-Things (IoT).