• Miller, Thomas
• Geiger, Franz
• Kim, Jeongmin
• Ohno, Paul E.
• Boamah, Mavis D.
• Walker, Catherine
• Lozier, Emilie H.

Abstract

<jats:title>Significance</jats:title><jats:p>This work reports kinetic:electrical energy transduction using nanolayers formed in a single step from Earth-abundant elements. The method utilizes large-area physical vapor deposition onto rigid or flexible substrates that can be readily scaled to arbitrarily large areas. In addition to flowing aqueous droplets across the nanolayers, current is shown to be created either with linear flow of salinity gradients or with oscillatory flow of a constant salinity. The operational requirement of having to move a dynamically changing electrical double layer (a “gate”) across the nanostructure identified in prior approaches is confirmed for the structures and augmented by a need for electron transfer within the thermal oxide nanooverlayers terminating the metals. The simplicity of the approach allows for rapid implementation.</jats:p>

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• physical vapor deposition