Review: The Rise of Hydrovoltaics

Water contains tremendous energy, which fuels the Earth's water cycle. Technology for generating electricity directly from interaction between water and nanomaterials is referred to as hydrovoltaic technology, providing versatile ways to harvest energy from most steps of the water cycle. Due to its attractive potential, intensive efforts have been devoted into this area, and lots of notable developments have been made during the last few years, supporting the progress of hydrovoltaics. In this article, a brief review of recent progress made in hydrovoltaic energy harvester for mechanical and environmental energy of water is presented. Following that, the future directions for hydrovoltaic energy and its potential on hydrovoltaic ecology and intelligence are envisioned.