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A Binghamton University professor and his students have designed a new wallpaper that takes moisture from the air and generates electricity.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Binghamton University
Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Power-Generating Wallpaper
The Core Concept: A novel wallpaper technology that absorbs moisture from indoor air and converts it into small amounts of electric current.
Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike previous moist-electric generators (MEGs) designed for outdoor use, this system is optimized for stable indoor environments. It uses a microchip-like architecture on paper, where glycerol captures moisture at the edges and a raised polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) structure controls evaporation in the center. This creates an ion-concentration gradient that separates charges and generates voltage, with all wiring hidden on the back for aesthetics.
Major Frameworks/Components:
- Moist-electric generators (MEGs)
- Ion-concentration gradients
- Charge separation
- Papertronics
- Hygroscopic and ionizable materials
Branch of Science: Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics.
Future Application: Powering low-energy devices for the "Internet of Things" (IoT), such as environmental sensors, smart-building interfaces, and wireless communications modules, while simultaneously regulating indoor humidity.
Why It Matters: It provides an innovative, sustainable, and aesthetically pleasing method for generating localized power for small electronics by utilizing everyday indoor moisture from respiration, cooking, and bathing.
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| Researchers from Binghamton University have developed wallpaper that can absorb moisture and generate electric power. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Binghamton University |
More than six million U.S. homes have solar panels on their roofs—but what if you could generate power inside your house, too? Researchers from Binghamton University have developed a new type of wallpaper that turns moisture in the room into small amounts of electric current, and they hope to improve the technology for greater power yields.
Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi, a faculty member at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, led the research published this month in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. PhD student Guangya “Roger” Yuan and Yang “Lexi” Gao, PhD ’26, collaborated on the study.
The wallpaper uses tiny moist-electric generators (MEGs) that absorb water molecules from the air. The absorbed moisture promotes the dissociation and movement of ions within the material, creating an ion-concentration gradient. This charge separation establishes a voltage between the two sides of the device, allowing electrical energy to be generated.
The MEGs do not need to compete with high-energy power sources. Instead, they can serve as dedicated power supplies for low-energy electronics such as environmental sensors, wireless communications modules, smart-building interfaces, and other data-collecting devices for the growing "Internet of Things."
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| Professor Seokheun "Sean" Choi from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Binghamton University's Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. Photo Credit: Jonathan Cohen. |
“All previous moist-electric generator devices are for outdoor humidity, because there is a lot of moisture out there that is an excellent energy resource,” Choi said. “The problem is that it generates such small amounts of power, and the outdoor environment is not stable because of extreme sunlight or weather. The good thing about an indoor environment is that it maintains a very constant humidity between 30 and 60 percent, and the occupants’ activities like respiration, cooking, and bathing generate additional moisture.”
No previous indoor-compatible design combined the necessary technology with the aesthetics that a homeowner would expect, so the Binghamton team overcame several challenges to make their idea a reality.
The most common MEGs use vertical or horizontal structures with an asymmetric distribution of hygroscopic or ionizable materials. One region preferentially absorbs moisture while another promotes desorption or evaporation, creating a sustained moisture and ion-concentration gradient that drives charge separation.
However, scaling this architecture to wall-sized arrays can lead to an inefficient use of space and difficulty in maintaining directional moisture transport over large areas.
To address these limitations, the researchers drew on Choi’s pioneering work in papertronics to develop a new MEG architecture resembling a microchip on a circuit board. Glycerol at the edges captures moisture from the air, while a raised polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) structure in the center, patterned with a wax layer, controls moisture release and evaporation. This spatial design directs moisture transport from the absorption region toward the evaporation region, maintaining a more controlled gradient for continuous power generation.
“It was not easy to integrate three different areas into one paper, but I want it all printable so that we can make it for mass production and at a larger scale,” Choi said.
Because homeowners would not want to see visible wiring, a second key design feature involved placing all the wiring for the MEGs on the back of the wallpaper. The researchers connected the generators in series and in parallel to see which setup produced the most power, but both methods yielded similar results.
For now, Choi sees the MEG arrays as a way to power small devices, such as environmental sensors or wireless keyboards, while also regulating a room’s humidity.
“We put a lot of energy into HVAC systems to remove moisture from the air, but if we use this concept, we could reduce or control moisture levels while also generating electricity,” he said.
Published in journal: Advanced Energy Materials
Authors: Guangya Yuan, Yang Gao, and Seokheun Choi
Source/Credit: Binghamton University | Chris Kocher
Edited by: Scientific Frontline
Reference Number: eng092926_02
