Harvesting clean and sustainable energy from moisture has emerged as a promising technology to break the paradigm of traditional energy generation by utilizing fossil fuels. However, the current design principles for moist-electric generators (MEGs) are mainly based on constructing a conformation gradient or water gradient in materials, or building electrokinetic streaming potential through a nanoporous structure, which is unfavorable for realizing spontaneous sustained electricity generation. Herein, inspired by electric double-layer capacitors, we propose a novel strategy to design a moist-electric generator via applying a pair of differently charged electrodes and an electrolyte-loaded nanofiber film. The assembled generator simultaneously achieved a sustained voltage and current output of 0.7 V and 3 μA over 120 h without obvious weakening while remaining sensitive to giving a moist response in a wide humidity range (35–95%), reaching the highest level among the existing moist-electric generators. Remarkably, the ion-diffusion force of the capacitor-inspired moist-electric generator (CMEG) originated from the adsorption of released ions by the charged electrode, which is different from the previously reported devices. This new type of generator can directly power electronics and successfully show the practical use in respiration monitors and touch sensing. This work provides new insights for designing future moist-electric generators, further facilitating the development of green and sustainable power generation.

A thin MoS₂nanosheets grafted MOF derived Co–N–C flake grown on electrospun carbon nanofiber film was designed and mass-produced. The material exhibited superior bifunctional catalytic activity for overall water splitting.

Wearable thermoelectric devices, capable of converting body heat into electrical energy, provide the potential driving power for the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and soft robotics. However, critical parameters have long been overlooked for these practical applications. Here, we report a three-dimensional flexible thermoelectric device with a structure featuring an inner rigid and outer flexible woven design. Such a structure includes numerous small static air pockets that create a stable out-of-plane temperature difference, enabling precise temperature signal detection (accuracy up to 0.02 K). Particularly, this structure exhibits excellent multi-signal decoupling capability, excellent elasticity (>10,000 compression cycles), ultra-fast compression response (20 ms), stable output signal under 50% compressive strain, high breathability (1300 mm s⁻¹), and washability. All these metrics achieve the highest values currently reported, fully meeting the requirements for body heat and moisture exchange, as demonstrated in our designed integrated smart mask and smart glove systems based on vector machine learning technology. This work shows that our three-dimensional flexible thermoelectric device has broad applicability in wearable electronics.

A breathable, flexible and deformable nanofiber fabric was reported and used for MEG due to the coexisting concentration difference and streaming potential in the fabric. Various wearable applications were demonstrated with the nanofiber fabric based MEGs.

Moisture-enabled electricity generation as an emerging new energy-harvesting technology is one of the most fascinating and promising candidates for supplying renewable and clean power.