[C-1] Energy Harvesting Devices

[C-1-02] Voltage and Power Enhancement of Hygroelectric Cell via Polyethylene Glycol Addition to Electrolyte Solution

〇Yusuke Komazaki¹, Taiki Nobeshima¹, Hirotada Hirama¹, Yuichi Watanabe¹, Kouji Suemori¹, Sei Uemura¹ (1. National Inst. of Advanced Indus. Sci. and Tech. (AIST) (Japan))

Presentation style: On-site (in-person)

https://doi.org/10.7567/SSDM.2022.C-1-02

Hygroelectric cell (HEC) is an energy harvester that generates electricity by the energy of humidity change in the air, based on a concentration cell with a deliquescent solution. The performance of HEC is limited by self-discharge derived from water permeation through a cation-exchange membrane. In this work, we report on the voltage and power enhancement of HEC via the self-discharge suppression effect by adding polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the electrolyte solution of HEC. At maximum, the addition of 10 wt% PEG4000 improved the output voltage under the humidity changes between 30-90%RH to 86 mV from 25 mV and the addition of 10 wt% PEG1000 improved the output power to 7.6 μW from 4.4 μW.