Any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air when it’s peppered with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter, letting water molecules pass from the upper to the lower part of the material. But because each pore is so small, the water molecules would easily bump into the pore’s edge as they pass through the thin layer. It means the upper part of the layer would be bombarded with many more charge-carrying water molecules than the lower part, creating a charge imbalance, like in a cloud, as the upper part increased its charge relative to the lower part. This would effectually create a battery—one running while there’s any humidity in the air. The harvester could be designed from all kinds of material, offering broad choices for cost-effective and environment-adaptable fabrications. With humidity ever-present, it would run 24/7, rain or shine, at night and whether or not the wind blows, solving a major problem of technologies like wind or solar.
www.umass.edu/news/article/engineers-umass-amherst-harvest-abundant-clean-energy-thin-air-247