Transparent, self-healing, arbitrary tailorable moist-electric film generator

Abstract Spontaneous electric generation in ambient environment is attractive for revolutionary power supply systems. Herein, we report a moist-electric film generator (MEFG) that can simultaneously possess high flexibility, transparency and peculiarly self-healing ability derived from the rational combination of poly(4-styrensulfonic acid) with poly(vinyl alcohol). This flexible MEFG can be tailored and folded arbitrarily. A tiny piece of MEFG (2 mm2) will produce a considerable voltage of 0.6 V and a power of about 7.9 μW cm−2 under natural moisture. Even being cut off, MEFG can heal spontaneously and revive the flexibility, transparence and electric power with 100% healing efficiency. The high accumulated power by serial connection of MEFGs can be supplied on demand to viably drive commercial electronics regardless of being bent or broken severely. The self-powered wearable watch and display bulb are successfully achieved on the basis of MEFGs, which demonstrates the promising applications for next-generation versatile power sources.