A Graphene Based Radiative Environmental Energy Harvesting Cell

To maintain high situational awareness, dismounted Soldiers are making increasing use of soldier-borne electronic devices (e.g., sensors, radios, data devices, etc.). Unfortunately these devices require a considerable number of batteries to maintain their operation during a typical multi-day mission. Ultimately this presents a considerable cost and logistical burden for the U.S. Army while also presenting a physical risk to the warfighter (due to the weight burden). As a result, the U.S. Army has considerable interest in highly efficient and portable energy harvesting technologies. Solar energy has emerged as the leading candidate due to its high degree of portability. However, it has limited efficiency and is only capable of harvesting electromagnetic energy (EM) in the visible light spectrum and thus is unable to provide continuous charging capabilities during the day, night and in inclement weather. As such, the U.S. Army is interested in new radiative environmental energy harvesting technologies with both improved efficiency and the ability to convert EM energy beyond the visible light spectrum into usable electric current. To that end, i2C Solutions propose the development of an entirely new class of radiative environmental energy harvesting devices based on the use of graphene material.