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Help me ! : how self-help has not changed my life
Marianne Power was stuck in a rut. Then one day she wondered: could self-help books help her find the elusive perfect life? She decided to test one book a month for a year, following their advice to the letter. What would happen if she followed the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Really felt The Power of Now? Could life be transformed? Because she honestly did want all the things these books promised. To find a Love that Lasts and to unearth The Secret to making your dreams come true. What begins as a clever experiment becomes an achingly poignant story. Because self-help can change your life -- but not necessarily for the better . . . Help Me is a hysterically funny and incredibly moving book about a wild and ultimately redemptive journey that will resonate with anyone who's ever dreamed of finding happiness.
High‐Performance MXene Hydrogel for Self‐Propelled Marangoni Swimmers and Water‐Enabled Electricity Generator
Developing multifunctional materials that integrate self‐propulsion and self‐power generation is a significant challenge. This study introduces a high‐performance MXene‐chitosan composite hydrogel (CM) that successfully combines these functionalities. Utilizing Schiff base bond and hydrogen bond interactions, the CM hydrogel, composed of chitosan, vanillin, and MXene, achieves exceptional self‐propulsion on water driven by Marangoni forces. The hydrogel demonstrates rapid movement, extended operation, and controllable trajectories. Notably, the CM hydrogel also exhibits superior degradability, recyclability, and repeatability. Furthermore, the nano‐confined channels within the hydrogel play a crucial role in enhancing its water‐enabled electricity generation (WEG) performance. By efficiently adsorbing water molecules and selectively transporting cations through these channels, the hydrogel can generate electricity from water molecules and cations more efficiently. As a result, the CM‐WEG achieves a stable open‐circuit voltage of up to 0.83 V and a short‐circuit current of 0.107 mA on seawater, with further improvements in K2CO3‐containing water, reaching 1.26 V and 0.922 mA. Leveraging its unique combination of self‐propulsion and WEG functionalities, the CM hydrogel is successfully used for cargo delivery while simultaneously powering electronic devices. This research represents a significant step toward the development of self‐powered, autonomous soft robotics, opening new research directions in the field. This study presents a high‐performance hydrogel (CM) that seamlessly integrates self‐propulsion and self‐power generation functionalities through a nanoconfined structure. The hydrogel demonstrates exceptional locomotor capabilities on the water surface and efficient water‐enabled electricity generation. Furthermore, the potential application of this hydrogel in cargo delivery, coupled with the simultaneous electronic devices powering, is discussed, thereby paving the way for advancements in self‐powered soft robotics.
Journal Article
Self-Powered Sensors: New Opportunities and Challenges from Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials
Nanomaterials have gained considerable attention over the last decade, finding applications in emerging fields such as wearable sensors, biomedical care, and implantable electronics. However, these applications require miniaturization operating with extremely low power levels to conveniently sense various signals anytime, anywhere, and show the information in various ways. From this perspective, a crucial field is technologies that can harvest energy from the environment as sustainable, self-sufficient, self-powered sensors. Here we revisit recent advances in various self-powered sensors: optical, chemical, biological, medical, and gas. A timely overview is provided of unconventional nanomaterial sensors operated by self-sufficient energy, focusing on the energy source classification and comparisons of studies including self-powered photovoltaic, piezoelectric, triboelectric, and thermoelectric technology. Integration of these self-operating systems and new applications for neuromorphic sensors are also reviewed. Furthermore, this review discusses opportunities and challenges from self-powered nanomaterial sensors with respect to their energy harvesting principles and sensing applications.
Journal Article
Bio-based solar energy harvesting for onsite mobile optical temperature sensing in Smart Cities
The Internet of Things (IoT) fosters the development of smart city systems for sustainable living and increases comfort for people. One of the current challenges for sustainable buildings is the optimization of energy management. Temperature monitoring in buildings is of prime importance, as heating account for a great part of the total energy consumption. Here, a solar optical temperature sensor is presented with a thermal sensitivity of up to 1.23% °C-1 based on sustainable aqueous solutions of enhanced green fluorescent protein and C-phycocyanin from biological feedstocks. These photonic sensors are presented under the configuration of luminescent solar concentrators widely proposed as a solution to integrate energy-generating devices in buildings, as windows or façades. The developed mobile sensor is inserted in IoT context through the development of a self-powered system able to measure, record, and send data to a user-friendly website.
Journal Article
The boy who harnessed the wind
\"When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land. Retold for a younger audience, this exciting memoir shows how, even in a desperate situation, one boy's brilliant idea can light up the world. Complete with photographs, illustrations, and an epilogue that will bring readers up to date on William's story, this is the perfect edition to read and share with the whole family.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Smart Fibers for Self-Powered Electronic Skins
Smart fibers are considered as promising materials for the fabrication of wearable electronic skins owing to their features such as superior flexibility, light weight, high specific area, and ease of modification. Besides, piezoelectric or triboelectric electronic skins can respond to mechanical stimulation and directly convert the mechanical energy into electrical power for self-use, thereby providing an attractive method for tactile sensing and motion perception. The incorporation of sensing capabilities into smart fibers could be a powerful approach to the development of self-powered electronic skins. Herein, we review several aspects of the recent advancements in the development of self-powered electronic skins constructed with smart fibers. The summarized aspects include functional material selection, structural design, pressure sensing mechanism, and proof-to-concept demonstration to practical application. In particular, various fabrication strategies and a wide range of practical applications have been systematically introduced. Finally, a critical assessment of the challenges and promising perspectives for the development of fiber-based electronic skins has been presented.
Graphical Abstract
Journal Article
Triboelectric nanogenerators for self-powered sensors and other applications
Nanogenerators as self-powered sensors, due to advancements in their cost-effectiveness, easy fabrication, and high customizability, have had extensive applications ranging from environmental monitoring, healthcare diagnostics, and smart homes to humanoid robots, precision agriculture, and the metaverse. Since their inception, triboelectric nanogenerators have been continuously optimized for durability, sensitivity, wearable comfort, etc. This progress has led to the development of diverse operational principles, designs, materials, and fabrication processes, paving the way for broader and more cutting-edge applications. Optimization of self-powered sensors has reduced their energy consumption while enabling them to scavenge energy more efficiently, thereby realizing self-sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) systems that offer lower environmental impact and reduced energy reliance for diverse applications in remote or inaccessible areas. Recently, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze outputs from self-powered sensors has endowed these systems with advanced functionalities, such as pattern recognition and decision-making. In this article, we introduce the development and evolution of nanogenerators as self-powered sensors, discuss the advantages and challenges of self-sustainable IoT systems, and anticipate the potential for further integration with AI to achieve key green/sustainability goals.
Graphical Abstract
TENG-enabled energy harvester, self-powered sensor, and self-sustainable AIoT system for future green earth
Journal Article