An Electricity-Generating Window Made of a Transparent Energy Harvester of Thermocells.

Windows are primarily for admitting light or air and allowing people to see out. Presented here are windows that can generate electricity while retaining the primary functions. These windows are made of transparent thermocells that convert a temperature difference across the window to electricity. Interconnected p-type and n-type or p-n thermocells are introduced and utilized to scale up the output power of a thermocell window (T-window). The T-window consisting of 2 p-n thermocells provides an output voltage of 60 mV and a power density of 0.5 µW/cm2 for a small temperature difference of 10 °C with an optical transparency of ∼50% in the visible range. The T-window introduced here could pave the way to enhancing energy efficiency in residential environments by capturing naturally available low-grade heat, a new renewable energy source that is otherwise discarded to the surrounding environment.

Manufacturing Process of Polymeric Microneedle Sensors for Mass Production.

In this work, we present a fabrication process for microneedle sensors made of polylactic acid (PLA), which can be utilized for the electrochemical detection of various biomarkers in interstitial fluid. Microneedles were fabricated by the thermal compression molding of PLA into a laser machined polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) mold. Sensor fabrication was completed by forming working, counter, and reference electrodes on each sensor surface by Au sputtering through a stencil mask, followed by laser dicing to separate individual sensors from the substrate. The devised series of processes was designed to be suitable for mass production, where multiple microneedle sensors can be produced at once on a 4-inch wafer. The operational stability of the fabricated sensors was confirmed by linear sweep voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry at the range of working potentials of various biochemical molecules in interstitial fluid.

Paper-Based Ionic Thermocouples for Inexpensive and High-Precision Measurement of Temperature.

Accurate and yet cost-effective temperature measurements are required in various sectors of academia and industry. Thermocouples (TCs) are most widely used for temperature measurements; however, their low temperature sensitivity and high thermal conductivity should be improved to ensure the reliable measurement of output voltage for small temperature differences. To address this, a paper-based ionic thermocouple (P-iTC) presented here utilizes a pair of paper strips soaked with the electrolytes of potassium ferri-/ferrocyanide and iron (II/III) chloride redox couples, which are used as p- and n-type elements, respectively. The fabricated P-iTC provides 70× higher temperature sensitivity (α, 2.8 mV/K) and 30× lower thermal conductivity (k, 0.8 W/m K) than those of commercial K-type TCs, thereby yielding a remarkably high α/k ratio of 3.5 mV m/W. Reliable sensing performance is measured during three weeks of operation, which indicates that the P-iTC should be stable in long-term operation. To demonstrate the practicality of the P-iTC, a 3 × 3 planar array of P-iTCs is fabricated to monitor the temperature profile of a surface in contact with heat sources. Using pencil-drawn graphite electrodes on paper, a highly cost-effective P-iTC with the material cost of ∼0.5 cents per device is also fabricated, which is successfully used to monitor cold chain temperatures while retaining its excellent temperature-sensing performance.