Multifunctional Energy‐Integrated Devices

摘要

The era of Internet of Things has been driving the rapid development of multifunctional devices featuring the seamless integration of modules of energy, sensing, actuation, displays, etc., towards miniaturized devices and smart applications in fields as diverse as robotics, medicine, and space exploration. However, challenges such as incompatibilities between different functioning subunits, which inevitably cause compromised performance, distant or wire connections that lead to a poor level of integration and power loss, etc., demand immediate solutions. Moreover, core to any electronic applications, future power sources require new strategies to realize the combination of high energy density, security, ultralight weight, and small size. This special issue is a collection of 12 research articles and 11 review articles, contributed by renowned researchers in the field of multifunctional energy-integrated devices. The articles can be sorted into three themes: 1) advanced energy storage devices, including batteries and supercapacitors; 2) energy harvesting devices, including photovoltaic cells, thermoelectric devices, and triboelectric nanogenerators; 3) multifunctional devices that integrate energy harvesting and storage for optoelectronic and biological sensory systems. The topics covered in this special issue tackle the aforementioned challenges from different angles spanning materials, mechanisms, devices, and systems as a whole, paving the way to the development of next-generation self-powered, wearable, and smart devices. In this special issue, Djenizian and co-workers report coaxial wire-shaped Li-ion batteries by adopting the unidirectional helical winding method, which shows high energy storage capacity while maintaining high flexibility and stretchability without compromising the electrochemical performance upon mechanical deformation (article number 2302117). Lethien and co-workers demonstrate a new class of electrolytic micro-capacitors by miniaturizing an electrolytic capacitor based on tantalum materials, yielding good capacitance retention of over 90% upon cycling 300 000 times (article number 2400682). Wu and co-workers have designed a simple hydrothermal strategy to pre-intercalate gallium ions in vanadate electrodes for aqueous Zn batteries. The reported device shows high specific capacity and energy density, in addition to good cycling performance and stability upon bending (article number 2400125). These research results demonstrate effective strategies for advancing the frontiers of energy storage research, particularly of interest to portable and miniaturized applications. Park and co-workers review the prospects and challenges in the field of battery-integrated systems, highlighting the need for advancements in energy density, power output, and safety to meet the demands of modern electronics (article number 2302236). Progress on energy harvesting devices is also a focus of this special issue. Dahiya and co-workers present 315 um2-sized miniaturized photovoltaic microcells made of roll-printed nanoscale photoactive electronic layers. By interconnecting 32 microcells in parallel, indoor light harvesting under white LED illumination has been realized (article number 2400728). Roy and co-workers report a composite-engineered thermoelectric module for high-efficiency waste heat recovery (article number 2301722). Chen and co-workers demonstrate a thermoelectric-water hybrid cooling garment that displays effective cooling along with a high coefficient of performance while maintaining thermal comfort (article number 2301069). Di and co-workers review advances in organic thermoelectric devices with particular focus on energy harvesting and sensing applications (article number 2302128). Hu and co-workers discuss progress in textile triboelectric nanogenerators which has enabled the rapid development of wearable energy-integrated technologies, leading to lightweight, low-cost, flexible, stretchable, washable, and sma