An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting
Abstract Thermoelectric (TE) ionogel have emerged as promising materials for harvesting low-grade heat owing to their flexibility and giant thermopower. However, current high-performance TE ionogel requires multi-component systems, resulting in trade-offs between TE performance, mechanics, and ion l...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
|
| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849768614688718848 |
|---|---|
| author | Liuqi Cao Tingting Sun Huiru Zhao MengHan Shang Lianjun Wang Wan Jiang |
| author_facet | Liuqi Cao Tingting Sun Huiru Zhao MengHan Shang Lianjun Wang Wan Jiang |
| author_sort | Liuqi Cao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Thermoelectric (TE) ionogel have emerged as promising materials for harvesting low-grade heat owing to their flexibility and giant thermopower. However, current high-performance TE ionogel requires multi-component systems, resulting in trade-offs between TE performance, mechanics, and ion leakage risk. Moreover, the humidity-dependent thermopower and two-dimensional device architectures restrict their practical applications. Here, a thermally actuated TE ionogel fiber is designed by tailoring the interactions between liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) network and ionic liquid. Fine tuning the mesogen orientation of LCE network ensures ~3-fold thermopower boost (25.8 mV K−1) and ~30-fold electrical conductivity boom (21.5 mS m−1) at low humidity (<30% RH). Furthermore, an actuatable gripper-structured TE device can be successfully integrated, which could four-dimensional dynamically adapt to complex-geometry heat source and enable decoupled recognition of size/shapes and temperatures of the heat source. The design concepts of actuatable thermoelectrics pave ways for their commercial successes in smart wearables and soft robots. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b7bb76dad3d144979f4e105d69cd4236 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-b7bb76dad3d144979f4e105d69cd42362025-08-20T03:03:44ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-07-0116111210.1038/s41467-025-60103-xAn actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvestingLiuqi Cao0Tingting Sun1Huiru Zhao2MengHan Shang3Lianjun Wang4Wan Jiang5State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua UniversityCollege of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Donghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua UniversityAbstract Thermoelectric (TE) ionogel have emerged as promising materials for harvesting low-grade heat owing to their flexibility and giant thermopower. However, current high-performance TE ionogel requires multi-component systems, resulting in trade-offs between TE performance, mechanics, and ion leakage risk. Moreover, the humidity-dependent thermopower and two-dimensional device architectures restrict their practical applications. Here, a thermally actuated TE ionogel fiber is designed by tailoring the interactions between liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) network and ionic liquid. Fine tuning the mesogen orientation of LCE network ensures ~3-fold thermopower boost (25.8 mV K−1) and ~30-fold electrical conductivity boom (21.5 mS m−1) at low humidity (<30% RH). Furthermore, an actuatable gripper-structured TE device can be successfully integrated, which could four-dimensional dynamically adapt to complex-geometry heat source and enable decoupled recognition of size/shapes and temperatures of the heat source. The design concepts of actuatable thermoelectrics pave ways for their commercial successes in smart wearables and soft robots.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x |
| spellingShingle | Liuqi Cao Tingting Sun Huiru Zhao MengHan Shang Lianjun Wang Wan Jiang An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting Nature Communications |
| title | An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting |
| title_full | An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting |
| title_fullStr | An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting |
| title_full_unstemmed | An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting |
| title_short | An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting |
| title_sort | actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens induced thermopower for four dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT liuqicao anactuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT tingtingsun anactuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT huiruzhao anactuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT menghanshang anactuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT lianjunwang anactuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT wanjiang anactuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT liuqicao actuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT tingtingsun actuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT huiruzhao actuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT menghanshang actuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT lianjunwang actuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting AT wanjiang actuatableionogelthermoelectricfiberwithalignedmesogensinducedthermopowerforfourdimensionaldynamicallyadaptiveheatharvesting |