An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced unprecedented thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting

An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced unprecedented thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced unprecedented thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting Lianjun Wang, Liuqi Cao, Tingting Sun, Huiru Zhao, MengHan Shang, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5606102/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 01 Jul, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Thermoelectric (TE) ionogel is promising material for harvesting low-grade heat owing to their nature of quasi-solid state and giant thermopower. However, current high-performance ionogel at low humidity present multicomponent systems, resulting in a trade-off between TE property, mechanics, and cost, and their device are integrated on planar substrates, erasing their advantage of adapting to complex-shaped geometry. A TE conversion system dynamically adaptive to any curved heat surface while achieving high intrinsic TE performance remains a formidable challenge. Here, an actuated ionogel TE fiber is designed, where the fine-tuning mesogen orientations can generate unprecedented 3-fold thermopower boost (25.8 mV K-1) at low humidity via enlarging the thermal mobility difference of ion inside the liquid crystal elastomer network, accompanied by a 30-fold electrical conductivity boom. Moreover, benefiting from their actuatable and excellent mechanical properties, and internal torque inside weaving structure, a woven gripper-structured TE device achieves a four-dimensional dynamically adaptive ability to complex geometrical heat source, and thus a stable output over time regardless of changing size or temperature of the heat source. Decoupled identification of size/shape and temperature of the heat source can also be enabled. The design concepts of the actuatable TE ionogel and device pave new ways for commercial ionic thermoelectrics. Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for energy and catalysis/Thermoelectrics Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Thermoelectric devices and materials Thermoelectric ionogel Liquid crystal elastomer Actuated thermoelectric fiber Four-dimensional device Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Supportingvideo.1.mp4 Supporting video.1 Supportingvideo.2.mp4 Supporting video.2 Supportingvideo.3.mp4 Supporting video.3 Supportingvideo.4.mp4 Supporting video.4 Supportingvideo.5.mp4 Supporting video.5 Supportingvideo.6.mp4 Supporting video.6 SupportingInformation.docx Supporting Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 01 Jul, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5606102","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":390799870,"identity":"605f5fce-df43-455d-8644-6a74e261b9f9","order_by":0,"name":"Lianjun Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAyElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLCCBzw2jBtADB6itSTwpJGsheEwCVoMjp89/CJB5rzsdokExgdv2xjkzQlqOZOXZpHAc9t454wEZsO5bQyGOxsIaDE7kGNmANSSuOFGAps0bxtDgsEBQlrOvwFpOQfSwv6bOC03cowfJPAcANvCTJQW+xtvzICBnGy84czDZsk55yQMNxDSItmfY/zhY4+d7IbjyQc/vCmzkSdoCxCwSTD2gGjGBiAhQVg9EDB/YPhBlMJRMApGwSgYqQAA669Ez0qceuAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-9801","institution":"Donghua University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lianjun","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":390799871,"identity":"1399dfee-0332-4de0-b41c-eac2d9d88904","order_by":1,"name":"Liuqi Cao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Donghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Liuqi","middleName":"","lastName":"Cao","suffix":""},{"id":390799872,"identity":"ff092468-c8b8-46ca-bb08-978dd5093510","order_by":2,"name":"Tingting Sun","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Donghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tingting","middleName":"","lastName":"Sun","suffix":""},{"id":390799873,"identity":"dcab7e9a-9feb-46db-aa9e-8be4598868c1","order_by":3,"name":"Huiru Zhao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Donghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huiru","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhao","suffix":""},{"id":390799874,"identity":"1bdd0090-6654-4305-9423-8bfdf613cf29","order_by":4,"name":"MengHan Shang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Donghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"MengHan","middleName":"","lastName":"Shang","suffix":""},{"id":390799875,"identity":"ed4c51dc-2363-48b0-9c54-63f727123c71","order_by":5,"name":"Wan Jiang","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1015-0371","institution":"Donghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wan","middleName":"","lastName":"Jiang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-12-09 06:05:18","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5606102/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5606102/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x","type":"published","date":"2025-07-01T04:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85825842,"identity":"3885916d-aedc-40f4-a007-6d4449c9800d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-02 07:09:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1142157,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1_covered_09f63730-bbf5-4d83-9990-17c4be155f2b.pdf"},{"id":71589865,"identity":"60efce80-e60b-49c2-8467-0bd216cb59bd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:28","extension":"mp4","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":9025703,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting video.1","description":"","filename":"Supportingvideo.1.mp4","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/b4d22c938f6979ff1b6f4fab.mp4"},{"id":71589867,"identity":"f7e49890-a62f-42e2-8e6e-d6844f5c2b4f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:28","extension":"mp4","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":14541938,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting video.2","description":"","filename":"Supportingvideo.2.mp4","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/f30d9df9ebbe4d2fe84720bb.mp4"},{"id":71589866,"identity":"a1c3da8d-19ef-4778-891c-aa63c0d6d565","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:28","extension":"mp4","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":13940255,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting video.3","description":"","filename":"Supportingvideo.3.mp4","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/6a1b80bf8330673470fe1acf.mp4"},{"id":71589871,"identity":"0aed8c12-fcd5-49ca-a284-4e8c1bd7b6a4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:29","extension":"mp4","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":40131639,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting video.4","description":"","filename":"Supportingvideo.4.mp4","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/d91e7fdedba4d115f37bc672.mp4"},{"id":71589869,"identity":"f7cf94de-361d-40d9-9247-fa452471a0bf","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:28","extension":"mp4","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":14349790,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting video.5","description":"","filename":"Supportingvideo.5.mp4","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/e156c352966411008bdb4053.mp4"},{"id":71589870,"identity":"f97f9e8b-6602-4343-b0d0-06021de3a6ba","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:29","extension":"mp4","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":23403442,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting video.6","description":"","filename":"Supportingvideo.6.mp4","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/cd3f9c45875f82c48b2242e5.mp4"},{"id":71589873,"identity":"1eff18f0-b467-4505-bef5-81a4921bc2f5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-12-17 02:56:29","extension":"docx","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":30025253,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supporting Information","description":"","filename":"SupportingInformation.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5606102/v1/bcfcdd91a1e107ca0b22bc5f.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced unprecedented thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Thermoelectric ionogel, Liquid crystal elastomer, Actuated thermoelectric fiber, Four-dimensional device","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5606102/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5606102/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Thermoelectric (TE) ionogel is promising material for harvesting low-grade heat owing to their nature of quasi-solid state and giant thermopower. However, current high-performance ionogel at low humidity present multicomponent systems, resulting in a trade-off between TE property, mechanics, and cost, and their device are integrated on planar substrates, erasing their advantage of adapting to complex-shaped geometry. A TE conversion system dynamically adaptive to any curved heat surface while achieving high intrinsic TE performance remains a formidable challenge. Here, an actuated ionogel TE fiber is designed, where the fine-tuning mesogen orientations can generate unprecedented~3-fold thermopower boost (25.8 mV K-1) at low humidity via enlarging the thermal mobility difference of ion inside the liquid crystal elastomer network, accompanied by a~30-fold electrical conductivity boom. Moreover, benefiting from their actuatable and excellent mechanical properties, and internal torque inside weaving structure, a woven gripper-structured TE device achieves a four-dimensional dynamically adaptive ability to complex geometrical heat source, and thus a stable output over time regardless of changing size or temperature of the heat source. Decoupled identification of size/shape and temperature of the heat source can also be enabled. The design concepts of the actuatable TE ionogel and device pave new ways for commercial ionic thermoelectrics.","manuscriptTitle":"An actuatable ionogel thermoelectric fiber with aligned mesogens-induced unprecedented thermopower for four-dimensional dynamically adaptive heat harvesting","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-12-17 02:56:23","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5606102/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"72fd9ce9-f0d7-4339-8a87-96bf0828468e","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 17th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":41649219,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for energy and catalysis/Thermoelectrics"},{"id":41649220,"name":"Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Thermoelectric devices and materials"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-02T07:09:38+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-5606102","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x","journal":{"identity":"nature-communications","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Nature Communications"},"publishedOn":"2025-07-01 04:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"July 1st, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2024-12-17 02:56:23","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60103-x","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5606102","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5606102","identity":"rs-5606102","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}