What can we do with a ferroelectric electrolyte?

Recently, it has become more and more necessary to reduce the carbon footprint to avoid one of the next problems the world will likely face which is the lack of water, consubstantiated, for example, in long and pronounced droughts. It is then paramount to store the energy from the sun but also to transform part of the wasted heat and thermal energy into electrical energy. It is known that 20-30% of the electrical energy used is wasted as heat. To pursue the latter challenges, sustainability in materials and methods is fundamental not to make from the solutions additional problems. Here we demonstrate novel and sustainable energy storage and harvesting cells that draw their behavior and capacity from the inexpensive and sustainable Na- and Li-based ferroelectric electrolyte. The cells are safe to be used as structural elements and harvest from heat and thermal energy and store electrical energy. They can be fast-charged in 3 minutes and discharged in days or months.