Capillary Driven Electrokinetic Power Generator

Recently, paper-based platform has been used for electrokinetic energy conversion by exploiting the surface energy of the device. In such a device, liquid migrates towards downstream direction through wicking action and the net streaming potential is obtained from coupled capillary and evaporation effect. However, the fabrication technique reported to manufacture such devices essentially scales up the cost. Hence, in this work, we have attempted to fabricate an ultra low-cost paper device and exploit the same for electrokinetic energy generation.

We develop an ultra-low cost electrokinetic power generator on a paper platform, by employing simple pencil-sketched electrodes and a frugal fabrication technology. The paper platform ( ~10µm pore size) can induce open circuit potential and short circuit current in the range of ~30-40mV and ~5nA respectively, by utilizing the capillary-driven spontaneous flow of an ionic solution through the internal pores. Such devices turn out to be ideal in empowering portable sensors for biomedical applications in resource-limited settings.