Hybrid dual-functioning electrodes for combined ambient energy harvesting and charge storage: Towards self-powered systems

Abstract In the last few years, there have been an increasing number of reports where different energy harvesters are directly combined with charge storing devices, based on dual-function electrodes able to convert and store electrical energy in the same volume. This includes (bio)fuel cells harvesting chemical energy, (bio)solar cells harvesting solar energy, tribo- and piezoelectric devices harvesting mechanical energy, and thermoelectrics harvesting thermal energy, which now have been intimately combined with batteries and electrochemical capacitors. These new types of hybrid electric devices show great promise especially for the design of self-powered electronics where an integrated hybrid power system is preferable to separated ones, capable of scavenging ambient energy and simultaneously store it and in this way increasing the efficiency and enabling further miniaturization. This paper details the recent emergence of hybrid energy systems, reviewing the progress made using widely different energy harvesting techniques, which have so-far not been described in a single body of work.