一種利用雨水發(fā)電的新方法，每滴可以為100個LED燈泡供電

一種利用雨水發(fā)電的新方法，每滴可以為100個LED燈泡供電

Tapping into the water cycle and generating electricity from rainy days could be one way to grow our renewable energy use.

利用水循環(huán)和雨天發(fā)電可能是增加可再生能源使用的一種方式。

Until now, scientists have been unable to get water droplets to produce a significant amount of power - but we may finally have a breakthrough.

到目前為止，科學家們還不能讓水滴產生大量的能量——但我們最終可能會取得突破。

While we're still a long way from umbrellas that double up as generators, the latest approach shows there might be a way to get power from rain showers at a level of efficiency that makes these systems practical.

雖然我們離把雨傘變成發(fā)電機還有很長一段路要走，但最新的方法表明，或許有一種方法可以從雨滴中獲得能量，其效率可以讓這些系統(tǒng)變得實用。

New research has found a method that could generate enough power from a single droplet of rain to light up 100 LED bulbs. That's a big jump forward in efficiency, in the region of several thousand times.

一項新的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種方法，可以從一滴水中產生足夠的能量來點亮100個LED燈泡。這在效率上是一個巨大的飛躍，大約是以前的幾千倍。

Our research shows that a drop of 100 microlitres of water released from a height of 15 centimetres [5.9 inches] can generate a voltage of over 140V, and the power generated can light up 100 small LED lights, says biomedical engineer Wang Zuankai from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

“我們的研究表明，從15厘米(5.9英寸)的高度釋放一滴100微升的水可以產生超過140V的電壓，并且所產生的功率可以點亮100盞小型LED燈。”香港城市大學(CityU)生物醫(yī)學工程師Wang Zuankai說道。

That sounds like a surprising amount of voltage, but the engineers used some ingenious tricks to make it happen.

這聽起來令人驚訝，但工程師使用了一些巧妙的技巧來實現(xiàn)它。

Scientists have been looking into this type of power production for years, but the physics of converting the energy of raindrops into electricity are much harder to do than harvesting the energy from a rising tide or a flowing stream.

多年來，科學家一直在研究這種發(fā)電方式，但是將雨滴的能量轉換為電能的物理學，比從漲潮或溪流中收集能量要難得多。

One of the improvements the team built into their droplet-based electricity generator (DEG) was the use of a polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE film, which is able to accumulate a surface charge as it's continuously hit by water droplets, until it gradually reaches saturation.

該團隊在他們的基于水滴的發(fā)電機(DEG)中進行的改進之一是使用聚四氟乙烯或PTFE薄膜，當它不斷受到水滴的撞擊時，能夠積累表面電荷，直到逐漸達到飽和。

The team found that as water droplets hit the surface and spread out, the drops act as a 'bridge' that connects two electrodes: an aluminium electrode and an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode (with the PTFE on top).

研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，當水滴撞擊表面并擴散開來時，這些水滴充當了連接兩個電極的“橋梁”:一個是鋁電極，另一個是銦錫氧化物(ITO)電極(頂部是聚四氟乙烯)。

The droplet bridge in turn creates a closed-loop surface so that all of the collected energy can be released – droplets act as resistors, and the surface coating acts as a capacitor.

液滴橋反過來形成了一個閉環(huán)表面，這樣所有收集的能量都可以釋放——液滴作為電阻，表面涂層作為電容器。

This approach could eventually be applied anywhere that water hits a solid surface, the researchers say – the hull of a boat, the inside of a water bottle, or the top of an umbrella.

研究人員說，這種方法最終可以應用于任何水接觸固體表面的地方——船體、水瓶內部或傘的頂部。

The significance of this technology is the much enhanced electric power per falling rain droplet, which makes the device much more efficient to convert energy from a falling droplet to electricity, chemist Xiao Cheng Zeng, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told Sarah Wells at Vice.

來自內布拉斯加大學林肯分校的化學家肖成曾告訴Vice網站的莎拉·威爾斯說:“這項技術的意義在于每一滴下落的雨滴都能產生更強的電能，這使得該裝置更有效地將下落的雨滴轉化為電能。”

There's plenty of work still to do to get this ready for practical use however, with the researchers hoping to have a prototype ready in the next five years.

然而，要讓這項技術真正投入使用，還有大量的工作要做，研究人員希望在未來五年內研制出樣機。

The research has been published in Nature.

這項研究發(fā)表在《自然》雜志上。