Design and Mechanism of a Self-Powered and Disintegration–Reorganization–Regeneration Power Supply with Cold Resistance

Up to now, power supplies designed based on the electrochemical reaction principle have had unavoidable defects, in that a complete redox reaction must be formed inside the power supply to operate normally, which makes it unable to be reconstructed and regenerated. Hence, the design and interpretation of this self-powered and disintegration-reorganization-regeneration power supply are generally considered to be almost insurmountable obstacles to haunt both experimenters and theorists. Herein, a self-powered and disintegration-reorganization-regeneration power supply with relatively stable discharge for 8.3 h is realized by the principle of ion-selective diffusion, which regenerates by radical polymerization. Additionally, the mechanism is investigated systematically by molecular dynamics simulation, and this power supply with a variety of self-powered and disintegration-reorganization-regeneration units can discharge continuously at freezing temperatures and variable temperature (0-25 °C). As a hypothetical model, a self-powered and deformable arch bridge with disintegration and reorganization is fabricated. In the future, this power supply is expected to be applied in prosthetic limbs, bionic skins, implantable power supplies, mobile phones, portable computers, wearable devices, etc. Moreover, with the improvement of the stability and discharge life, it could promote major revolutionary breakthroughs in the fields of intelligent industrial automation, smart buildings, intelligent transportation systems, intelligent power systems, etc.