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  • Review Article
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Nature-inspired interfacial engineering for energy harvesting

Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 1, pages 218–233 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ever-increasing demand for low-carbon energy underscores the urgency of harvesting renewable energy sources. Despite notable progress, current energy harvesting techniques are still limited by low efficacy and poor durability. Biological systems exhibit diverse principles of energy harvesting owing to their ability to interact with the environment. In this Review, we explore diverse energy harvesting processes in nature to establish a fundamental understanding of nature’s strategies and provide a biomimicry design blueprint for high-efficiency energy harvesting systems. Next, we systematically discuss recent progress in nature-inspired surface/interface designs for efficient energy harvesting from water, sunlight and heat. We then highlight emerging hybrid approaches that can integrate multiple energy conversion processes within a single design through interface engineering to achieve mutual reinforcement. Finally, we deliberate on remaining fundamental and technical challenges to guide future research directions and potential applications of sustainable energy harvesting.

Key points

  • Exploring diverse energy harvesting processes in nature to establish a fundamental understanding of nature’s strategies in energy manipulation.

  • Probing nature-inspired surface regulation for efficiently transformating environmental energy source inputs to energy outputs.

  • From the perspective of the phase state, summarizing interface engineering involved in water, sunlight and heat energy harvesting.

  • Systematically discussing recent progress in nature-inspired interface designs for water, sunlight and heat energy harvesting.

  • Highlighting emerging hybrid energy harvesting systems to achieve mutual reinforcement through interface engineering.

  • Presenting perspectives on remaining challenges and future directions in nature-inspired interfacial engineering for energy harvesting.

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Fig. 1: Energy harvesting in nature.
Fig. 2: Nature-inspired engineering for hydrophilic surface-based water energy harvesting.
Fig. 3: Nature-inspired engineering for hydrophobic surface-based water energy harvesting.
Fig. 4: Nature-inspired engineering for solar energy harvesting at a gas (air)–solid interface.
Fig. 5: Nature-inspired engineering for heat energy harvesting.
Fig. 6: Hybrid energy harvesting.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (T2293694, 51975502), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (C1006-20W, 11213320, 11219219), Shenzhen Key Project (JCYJ20200109143206663) and Tencent Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Baoping Zhang, Wanghuai Xu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Baoping Zhang, Yuchao Li & Zuankai Wang

  2. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Wanghuai Xu

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Liang Peng & Wei Zhang

  4. Shenzhen Research Institute of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, China

    Zuankai Wang

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  1. Baoping Zhang
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  5. Wei Zhang
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Zhang, B., Xu, W., Peng, L. et al. Nature-inspired interfacial engineering for energy harvesting. Nat Rev Electr Eng 1, 218–233 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-024-00029-6

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