For a good few years I was collecting articles about ambient energy harvesting, very interesting topic, or so I thought. But then, one day, all of the sudden, it disappeared. Just like that. Maybe it's called something else now and I just haven't realized it.
I mean when it comes to graphene, for example, we saw the gradual transition to things like hexagonal boron nitride, or silica (see below), and finally to Moiré lattices, so that we sort of don't even care about the graphene part anymore.
We saw wearables become electronic skin, and RNGs became QRNGs, and the topological zoo became...well it's actually still being called that; but what did ambient energy harvesting become?
Self-powered sensor can generate electricity and light simultaneously using only movement
Feb 2025, phys.org
They combine triboelectric nanogenerators and mechanoluminescence, adding light-emitting zinc sulfide-copper particles to a rubber-like material called polydimethylsiloxane using a single electrode structure based on silver nanowires.
via Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology: Sugato Hajra et al, Simultaneous Triboelectric and Mechanoluminescence Sensing Toward Self‐Powered Applications, Advanced Sustainable Systems (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adsu.202400609
For Old Time's Sake:
Glaphene: 2D hybrid material integrates graphene and silica glass for next-generation electronics
May 2025, phys.org
The team developed a two-step, single-reaction method to grow glaphene using a liquid chemical precursor that contains both silicon and carbon. By tuning oxygen levels during heating, they first grew graphene then shifted conditions to favor the formation of a silica layer.
Rice University: Sathvik Ajay Iyengar et al, Glaphene: A Hybridization of 2D Silica Glass and Graphene, Advanced Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202419136
The Graphene Zoo (as of today) - Glaphene, Graphyne, White Graphene, Synthetic Hexagonal Diamonds, Olympicene, Borophene, Interdimensional Graphene-Graphite, Goldene, and the link to explanations of what these are, here.
And because we do need to know this, the word graphite comes from the pencil, which contained "black lead" until we discovered it was actually carbon, when it was given the name that means "to write" in Greek plus -ite which is given to minerals (like Fordite, aka Detroit Agate, wiki link, and link for those who really want to know).
Scientists develop novel self-healing electronic skin for health monitoring
Feb 2025, phys.org
Self-healing electronic skin provides health monitoring systems, real-time fatigue detection and muscle strength assessment.
via Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation: Yongju Lee et al, Rapidly Self-Healing Electronic Skin for Machine Learning-Assisted Physiological and Movement Evaluation, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads1301.
Quantum random number generator combines small size and high speed
Sep 2025, phys.org
From my armchair, I predict this statement as good for posterity: "The quantum properties of light make it possible to produce numbers that are truly random, unlike the numbers generated by computer algorithms, which only imitate randomness." Something about Einstein, God, and gambling.
via Toshiba's Cambridge Research Laboratory in the United Kingdom: Peter Smith et al, Noise-Rejecting Photonic Integrated Circuit for Robust Quantum Random Number Generation, Optica Quantum (2025). DOI: 10.1364/opticaq.570625
Conventional entanglement can have thousands of hidden topologies in high dimensions
Dec 2025, phys.org
The topological zoo now tops-out at 48 dimensions with over 17,000 topological signatures, an enormous alphabet for encoding robust quantum information.
"You get the topology for free, from the entanglement in space. It was always there, it just had to be found."
via University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa: Robert de Mello Koch et al, Revealing the topological nature of entangled orbital angular momentum states of light, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66066-3
Topological Zoo Home Page - I will say, it's not often that you find a webpage from 1995 resulting from a simple web search - so yeah search in the age of ai has changed - http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/zoo/
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