Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
Publication date: 16th December 2024
In the past, a paradigmatic shift of the sustainable strategies to generate electricity revolutionized the world by the implantation of photovoltaic cells and wind towers. Today, the era of energy generation through the action of the sunlight and saltwater, with the help of innovative materials, is being promoted. In this study, a thermosensitive hydrogel (TSH) and a biopolymer (alginate), combined with photo-absorbers, demonstrated their prompt for the photothermal electricity production. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) is the most investigated TSH, who suffer a volume phase transition between coil (expanded) and globular (collapsed) conformations, under temperature stimulus. PNIPAAm hydrogel promotes the expulsion of water in its collapsed form above its lower critical solution temperature (LCST), at about 32–33°C, which deserves potential applicability in solar-driven technology. Furthermore, hydrogels represent ideal candidates to host salt solutions and polyelectrolytes, thanks to their high affinity to store water, which property is mainly attributed to the enhanced porous structure (cellular morphology) and the hydrophilic nature of the soft material.[1]
Recently, we have reported the successful combination of NIPAAm with sodium alginate (ALG) molecules, as biopolymer reinforcing components to the hydrogel matrix, and doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), as high solar absorption material for uses in solar-driven desalination processes.[2,3]
In the first study, a commercially available CP doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) (PEDOT-PSS) was employed,[2] whereas in the second study,[3] we synthesized PEDOT nanoparticles (PEDOT NPs) doped with 4-dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA). Both dopants have strategic advantages. The first is able to strengthen the mechanical integrity of the soft material, through PSS ionic interactions with NIPAAm, whereas the latter does not interfere with the hydrogel interpenetrating network and just serves as the solar absorber promoter.
In this work, we show the main characteristics of alginate, PEDOT-PSS and PEDOT-DBSA, to tailoring the electrochemical properties of solar absorber hydrogels (SAHs) and the vapor-activated power generation, based on TSH composed by the PNIPAAm-co-MBA framework, to convert the spontaneous vapor diffusion promoted by sunlight into electric power. This study introduces a novel approach for designing PEDOT anion-based hybrid hydrogels with enhanced water flux properties for solar-driven power generation.[4]
This project has received funding from the Grant PID2021-125257OB-I00, by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF "A way of making Europe,” by the European Union and from the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris I de Recerca AGAUR (2021 SGR 00387). This work is part of Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme CEX2023-001300-M/ funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.
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