[ExI] Self-Charged Graphene Battery Harvests Electricity from Thermal Energy of the Environment

[Henrique Moraes Machado]

So, what do you think of this?

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http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.0161

Self-Charged Graphene Battery Harvests Electricity from Thermal Energy of
the Environment

The energy of ionic thermal motion presents universally, which is as high as
4 kJ\bullet kg-1\bullet K-1 in aqueous solution, where thermal velocity of
ions is in the order of hundreds of meters per second at room
temperature1,2. Moreover, the thermal velocity of ions can be maintained by
the external environment, which means it is unlimited. However, little study
has been reported on converting the ionic thermal energy into electricity.
Here we present a graphene device with asymmetric electrodes configuration
to capture such ionic thermal energy and convert it into electricity. An
output voltage around 0.35 V was generated when the device was dipped into
saturated CuCl2 solution, in which this value lasted over twenty days. A
positive correlation between the open-circuit voltage and the temperature,
as well as the cation concentration, was observed. Furthermore, we
demonstrated that this finding is of practical value by lighting a
commercial light-emitting diode up with six of such graphene devices
connected in series. This finding provides a new way to understand the
behavior of graphene at molecular scale and represents a huge breakthrough
for the research of self-powered technology. Moreover, the finding will
benefit quite a few applications, such as artificial organs, clean renewable
energy and portable electronics.