A self-powered flexibly-arranged gas monitoring system with evaporating rainwater as fuel for building atmosphere big data

Abstract The atmosphere big data technique can provide data support for scientific decision-making for industry and people's life. Here, a novel self-powered flexibly-arranged gas monitoring system has been presented basing on a new water-evaporation/gas-sensing coupling effect. The rainwater evaporation along the device can convert natural energy into electricity for powering the whole system. And the outputting voltage/current is significantly dependent on the environmental atmosphere, acting as the gas sensing signal. The surface functional groups of carbon can bind to gas molecules, which changes the zeta potential of carbon and thus affects the electric output. The self-powered gas monitoring systems can be flexibly fixed out of doors, actively detect the air quality of different locations, and wirelessly transmit the sensing information to external platforms for building big data. The present results can open a new possible research direction for self-powered gas sensor and will further promote the development of environmental big data.