A team of engineers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has modified the approach used to generate electricity with a hydrovoltaic cell, building one that uses little water and no sunlight. Their study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Hydrovoltaic generate by capturing the energy from interactions between and other surfaces. Such interactions typically rely on sunlight as the instigating power source. As the researchers with this new effort note, the traditional approach results in a hydrovoltaic cell that needs a continuous source of water and that typically only operates in dry environments. In this new study, the team in China overcame both problems to create a new kind of hydrovoltaic cell.

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