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Intrinsic asymmetric iontronic-interfaces for giant power generation
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  • Published: 31 December 2025

Intrinsic asymmetric iontronic-interfaces for giant power generation

  • Haiyan Wang1,
  • Jie Dang1,
  • Ying Wang1,
  • Feng Liu  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9987-782X2,
  • Jinguo Lin2,
  • Tiancheng He3,
  • Qihua Liao3,
  • Qi Zhang4,
  • Huhu Cheng  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1170-82181,3,5 &
  • …
  • Liangti Qu  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0161-38161,3,5 

Nature Communications , Article number:  (2025) Cite this article

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Subjects

  • Electrochemistry
  • Electronic properties and materials

Abstract

Iontronic power source harnesses ion-electron coupling effect for energy conversion, offering great potential in wearable electronics and bioelectronics. However, its limited power density and insufficient current hinder the progress toward commercialization. Here we report an iontronic electricity generator based on intrinsic asymmetric interfaces and controllable energy-release, which reaches a maximum volumetric power density of up to 3680 W m-3, area power density of 18.4 W m-2, and peak current of more than 5 A. Cycling power generation is ascribed to reversible electron-coupled ion-oscillation at interface. Synergistically, the intrinsic asymmetric interfaces facilitate ion-electron coupling interaction, and the energy-release gate optimizes the energy conversion pathway, thus ensuring giant power output. The developed generator shows large-scale manufacturability and good flexibility. These exceptional performances in iontronic power source not only offer useful paradigms for wearable electronics, but also indicate a strategy and direction into high-power energy conversion from low-grade environmental source.

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Data availability

The data generated in this study are provided in the Supplementary Information and Source Data file. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (2024YFB4609100 to L.Q.), Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (JYB2025XDXM201), National Natural Science Foundation of China (22035005 to L.Q., T2596012, 52090032, 52350362 to H.C.). Sincere thanks go to Prof. Tianling Ren’s group for their generous support in experiments and comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China

    Haiyan Wang, Jie Dang, Ying Wang, Huhu Cheng & Liangti Qu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China

    Feng Liu & Jinguo Lin

  3. State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China

    Tiancheng He, Qihua Liao, Huhu Cheng & Liangti Qu

  4. Fundamental Industry Training Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China

    Qi Zhang

  5. State Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China

    Huhu Cheng & Liangti Qu

Authors
  1. Haiyan Wang
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Contributions

L.Q. initiated and guided the research. H.W. designed and performed the experiments. L.Q. and H.W. wrote and revised the manuscript. F.L. and J.L. conducted the theoretical calculation. J.D., Y.W., T.H., Q.L., Q.Z. and H.C. gave advice on experiments. All authors discussed the results and reviewed the manuscript. L.Q. supervised the entire project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liangti Qu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Communications thanks Tae Gwang Yun, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Description of Additional Supplementary File

Supplementary Video 1

Supplementary Video 2

Supplementary Video 3

Reporting summary

Transparent Peer Review file

Source data

Source Data

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Cite this article

Wang, H., Dang, J., Wang, Y. et al. Intrinsic asymmetric iontronic-interfaces for giant power generation. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68135-z

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  • Received: 18 April 2025

  • Accepted: 18 December 2025

  • Published: 31 December 2025

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68135-z

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