Photoenergy harvesting by ammonium molybdate soft hydrogel drops

Zelin Lu; Xinxin Hang; Zinan Zhao; Long Cheng; Yu Zeng; Bixuan Li; Menghan Tian; Baolei Liu; Xuchen Shan; Hongyan Zhu; Zhiying Wang; Menghao Ma; Jinliang Wang; Yongji Gong; Xiaolan Zhong; Yang Wang; Lingqian Chang; Fan Wang

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02016-4

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Photoenergy harvesting by ammonium molybdate soft hydrogel drops

Original Articles

- Photoenergy harvesting by ammonium molybdate soft hydrogel drops
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 12, Pages: 3998-4010(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.School of Physics, Beihang University, Beijing, China
  2.Key Laboratory of Biomechanics and Mechanobiology (Ministry of Education), Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China
  3.School of Biomedical Engineering, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
  4.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China
- Author bio：
  
  Xiaolan Zhong (zhongxl@buaa.edu.cn)
  Yang Wang (wangyang2022@buaa.edu.cn)
  Lingqian Chang (lingqianchang@buaa.edu.cn)
  Fan Wang (fanwang@buaa.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02016-4
  CLC：
- Received：16 April 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-08-05，
  
  Accepted：18 August 2025，
  
  Published Online：21 October 2025，
  
  Published：31 December 2025
- Accepted：
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Lu, Z. L. et al. Photoenergy harvesting by ammonium molybdate soft hydrogel drops. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3998-4010 (2025).
DOI：

Lu, Z. L. et al. Photoenergy harvesting by ammonium molybdate soft hydrogel drops. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3998-4010 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02016-4.

摘要

Abstract

Photoenergy harvesting is promising to power Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors

freeing the limitations of wired power sources or batteries

enabling bio-integrated devices. However

existing photoenergy harvesting systems are restricted to solid or liquid configurations—limiting biocompatibility and space utilization—which makes obtaining flexible

biocompatible

light-harvesting devices a significant challenge. In this paper

inspired by natural ion gradient diffusion in organisms

offering an ion-hydrogel drops-based photoenergy harvesting base on ammonium molybdate. Through the photochemical process of ammonium molybdate

the electric potential of the device is regulated by the altered ion gradient and the redox pairs (

$$ \left[\mathbf{M o}_{\mathbf{7}} \mathbf{O}_{\mathbf{2 4}}\right]^{\mathit{\pmb{6}} -} /\left[\mathbf{M o}_{\mathbf{1 4}} \mathbf{O}_{\mathbf{4 6}}\right]^{\mathit{\pmb{10}} -}$$

)

to generate energy. When exposed to excitation light

a photo driven ammonium molybdate-hydrogel photoenergy harvester (PAPH) can generate an open-circuit potential of ~250 mV

and it can still obtain a considerable output power for milliseconds to thousands of seconds after the termination of the initial illumination. The reversible hydrogel droplets network allows for the recovery and fabrication of arbitrary structures of the PAPH. We further demonstrate the scalable PAPH networks can on-demand regulation of cell epithelial growth factor secretion and receptor expression

stimulate the cell proliferation

thereby facilitating biological tissue wound repair. This ionic hydrogel opens a new avenue for flexible

photoenergy harvesting

biocompatible devices.

关键词

Keywords

references

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