this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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In an experiment, one tube produced 440 microwatts. When the researchers used four tubes at once, they could power 12 LEDs for 20 seconds.

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[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Charge separation is a real thing. It's the opposite of how an LED works. It's not very efficient in that direction, but it's real.

It works with electrons being excited by photons, though.

What that has to do with the interface of water and air, I can't figure out.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

third paragraph:

Normally, when we generate electricity from water, we use the movement of lots of it to drive a turbine in a river, the sea or even in drinking water pipes. But water flowing over an electrically conductive surface can generate its own electrical charge through a process called charge separation. This is driven by positively charged protons of the water molecules staying in the liquid and negatively charged electrons being donated to the surface, much as you can generate static electricity by rubbing a balloon on your hair.

charge separation is a lot more than just photoinduced charge separation

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If that was a real thing, at least in charges strong enough to harness for work, surely we wouldn't ground sensitive electronics to metal water pipes. And metal fuel containers would be spontaneously exploding all the time. I can't find any evidence of this phenomenon anywhere but in this article. Can you provide a source?

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect#Liquids_and_gases

Since triboelectricity requires asperities, I would guess the interiors of such containers are smoothed out. It’s also not unheard of for fuel containers to spontaneously explode when they fall, and movies that often happens when they smash against the ground.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Huh. TIL. Neat!