A flexible electromagnetic wave-electricity harvester

TLDR

Developing an EM‑absorbing material that dissipates EM energy and converts the resulting heat into electricity is highly desired but remains a significant challenge. We report a hybrid Sn@C composite with a biological cell‑like splitting ability to address this challenge. The composite, consisting of Sn nanoparticles embedded in porous carbon, splits under cyclic annealing, producing more dispersed, ultrasmall nanoparticles. The resulting EM‑wave‑electricity device achieves efficient EM‑to‑heat conversion across common frequencies, a maximum thermoelectric figure of merit of 0.62 at 473 K, and stable voltage and power output under microwave radiation, offering a promising self‑powered solution to EM interference.

Abstract

Abstract Developing an ultimate electromagnetic (EM)-absorbing material that can not only dissipate EM energy but also convert the generated heat into electricity is highly desired but remains a significant challenge. Here, we report a hybrid Sn@C composite with a biological cell-like splitting ability to address this challenge. The composite consisting of Sn nanoparticles embedded within porous carbon would split under a cycled annealing treatment, leading to more dispersed nanoparticles with an ultrasmall size. Benefiting from an electron-transmitting but a phonon-blocking structure created by the splitting behavior, an EM wave-electricity device constructed by the optimum Sn@C composite could achieve an efficiency of EM to heat at widely used frequency region and a maximum thermoelectric figure of merit of 0.62 at 473 K, as well as a constant output voltage and power under the condition of microwave radiation. This work provides a promising solution for solving EM interference with self-powered EM devices.