Energy Harvesting from Salt in Seawater: A New Source of Graphene-enabled Power

“该项目旨在展示一种基于神奇材料石墨烯的全新能量收集技术，利用储存在海水盐中的尚未解锁的电子能量。虽然已经存在许多能量收集解决方案（太阳能、热电、压电等），但没有一种能够直接从海水等带电流体中发电，而且很少有能够在海上的恶劣条件下正常运行和发展。我们的专利技术是基于功能化石墨烯，利用石墨烯固有的巨大机械强度（因此它能够承受恶劣环境）从海洋中提取离子电荷。这里将要开发的设备可以用于许多应用，例如连接到任何海上船只（浮标，船只，石油平台等），为电池组充电或直接为低功率电子设备供电。由于剑桥大学内部和更广泛的英国社区已经建立了联系，我们处于有利地位，可以利用这项可行性研究的主要商业成果。Paragraf为期9个月，耗资99918英镑进行可行性研究，将通过开发和利用石墨烯的主要特性，开发一种利用海水发电的新方法。它响应了探索将完全变革性的海洋可再生技术推向市场的潜力的挑战。没有其他公司或研究小组试图生产带电荷的功能化石墨烯。Paragraf将利用其专有技术，在不影响其导电性的情况下，用额外的载流子功能化石墨烯，从而加速离子流体中电子的解吸和吸收，从而改进以前的实验，并为该技术的实际应用提供潜力，从而显著提高当前的技术水平。通过使用其专有的功能化石墨烯，Paragraf将能够从普通盐水中产生大大增加的电压，这与之前的实验不同，使该公司能够做到以前不可能做到的事情，并为这项技术提供了现实世界应用的潜力。项目产出将适用于海洋物联网的多个全球出口市场，并且在存在离子流体的其他市场也有潜力，例如化学制造工艺或废水处理。该项目还将促进海洋可再生能源供应链以及英国纳米技术材料和设备生产制造商的业务增长。”

"This project aims to demonstrate a completely new energy harvesting technology based on the wonder material graphene, exploiting the as yet unlocked electronic energy stored within salt in seawater.While many energy harvesting solutions exist already (solar, thermoelectric, piezoelectric, etc.), none are capable of generating power directly from charged fluids such as seawater, and very few are capable of operating and thriving in the harsh conditions typically found at sea. Our proprietary technology is based on functionalised graphene which capitalises on the tremendous mechanical strength inherent to graphene (and thus its ability to withstand harsh environments) to extract ionic charge from the sea. Devices such as those which will be developed here can be exploited in many applications, such as being attached to any sea vessel (buoys, boats, oil platforms, etc.) to charge battery packs or directly energise low power electronic devices. We are in a strong position to exploit major commercial outcomes of this feasibility study, due to links already made within Cambridge and in the broader UK community.Paragraf's 9 month £99,918 feasibility study will develop a new way of generating electricity from seawater by developing and exploiting the principal properties of graphene. It responds to the challenge to explore the potential of bringing a completely transformative marine renewable technology to market.No other companies or research groups are attempting to produce functionalized graphene with an electrical charge. Paragraf will significantly improve on current state of the art by using its proprietary technique to functionalize graphene with extra carriers without impacting on its electrical conductivity, to enable accelerated desorption and absorption of electrons from the ionic fluid, thus improving on previous experiments and offering the potential of real-world applications for this technology. By using its proprietary functionalised graphene, Paragraf will be able to generate much-increased voltages from ordinary saltwater, unlike previous experiments, enabling the company to do something that was impossible before and offering the potential of real world applications for this technology.Project outputs will be applicable in multiple global export markets for marine Internet of Things, and also have potential in other markets that ionic fluids are present, for example chemical manufacturing processes or effluent disposal. The project will also improve business growth for the marine renewables supply chain, as well as for UK nanotechnology materials and device production manufacturers."