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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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This Wallpaper Doesn’t Just Decorate Your Walls—It Generates Power

Imagine covering the walls of your home with wallpaper that does more than improve the appearance of a room. Instead of simply decorating your walls, the wallpaper could quietly produce electricity from moisture naturally present in the air.

Researchers at Binghamton University have developed a new type of moisture-powered wallpaper designed to harvest small amounts of electrical energy from indoor humidity. The technology could eventually provide power for low-energy devices such as environmental sensors, wireless communication systems and smart-building equipment.

The research was led by Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. Doctoral students Guangya “Roger” Yuan and Yang “Lexi” Gao also contributed to the project.

Their findings were published in Advanced Energy Materials in a 2026 paper titled “Moist-Electric Wallpaper With Engineered Unidirectional Moisture Transport for Indoor Energy Harvesting and Humidity Management.”

Turning Air Moisture Into Electricity

The new wallpaper is based on a technology called a moist-electric generator, or MEG.

The basic idea is surprisingly simple. Air inside homes always contains some amount of water vapor. When water molecules are absorbed into a suitable material, they can encourage ions within that material to move and separate.

This movement creates an imbalance in electrical charge. As a result, a voltage develops between different parts of the generator, allowing a small electric current to be produced.

The amount of electricity generated is currently small, so the researchers are not suggesting that the wallpaper could replace conventional household electricity. Instead, its purpose is to provide a tiny but continuous energy source for electronics that consume very little power.

Potential applications include temperature and humidity sensors, environmental monitoring devices, wireless communication modules, smart-building interfaces and other Internet of Things devices.

Why Indoor Humidity Could Be Useful

Previous moist-electric generators have mainly focused on outdoor environments, where humidity can provide a large supply of water molecules.

However, outdoor conditions can change dramatically. Sunlight, rain, temperature and weather conditions can affect how much moisture is available and how reliably a generator operates.

Indoor environments can offer a more controlled situation.

According to the researchers, indoor relative humidity commonly remains within roughly 30% to 60%. Everyday activities can also add moisture to the air. Breathing, cooking and bathing, for example, all release water vapor.

That means a room can provide a relatively steady source of moisture without requiring sunlight or moving air.

Professor Choi sees this consistency as one of the major advantages of indoor moisture harvesting.

The concept could therefore work alongside existing energy technologies rather than competing directly with solar panels or the electrical grid.

A New Design for a Large Wall

Creating a tiny moisture-powered generator in a laboratory is one challenge. Turning the concept into something that could eventually cover an entire wall is much more difficult.

Traditional MEGs often use structures where different areas have different abilities to absorb or release moisture. One region absorbs water from the surrounding environment, while another region encourages moisture to leave.

This difference creates a moisture gradient. The gradient helps maintain the movement of ions and supports electricity generation.

But simply expanding this type of structure across a large wall could create problems. Moisture would not necessarily move efficiently over long distances, and a large amount of wall space could be wasted.

The Binghamton researchers developed a different architecture inspired by Choi's previous work in paper-based electronics, sometimes called papertronics.

Their design resembles a tiny electronic circuit printed onto a sheet.

Creating a Controlled Moisture Path

One of the key features is the use of glycerol around the edges of the wallpaper.

Glycerol attracts and absorbs moisture from the surrounding air. In the center, the researchers created a raised structure made from polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP).

A patterned wax layer helps control how moisture moves through the material.

Together, these components create a more controlled path for water. Moisture is encouraged to move from the absorption region toward the evaporation region.

This directional movement helps maintain the moisture and ion-concentration differences needed to generate electricity.

The researchers also wanted the entire structure to be printable.

That could become important if the technology eventually needs to be manufactured on a much larger scale. Instead of building every generator individually, manufacturers could potentially print large arrays of them onto wallpaper-like sheets.

Electricity Without Visible Wires

There is another practical challenge with putting electronics on a wall: nobody wants their home covered in visible wires.

To solve this problem, the researchers placed the electrical connections on the back of the wallpaper.

Multiple MEGs can be connected together to increase the usable electrical output. The team tested both series and parallel configurations to determine which arrangement would generate more power.

Interestingly, the two approaches produced similar results in their experiments.

Keeping the wiring behind the wallpaper could make the technology easier to integrate into buildings without dramatically changing their appearance.

From the front, it could potentially look much like ordinary decorative wallpaper.

What Could It Power?

The technology is not designed to run refrigerators, televisions or air conditioners.

Its potential is much more specific: powering very low-energy electronics.

For example, a moisture-powered wall could potentially operate environmental sensors that continuously monitor temperature, humidity or air quality.

It could also support small wireless communication devices or smart-building systems that collect and transmit information.

In such applications, even a small amount of electricity can be useful if the device consumes very little energy.

This could reduce the need for batteries and electrical wiring in large networks of sensors.

A Wallpaper That Could Also Help Manage Humidity

The technology could have another benefit beyond electricity generation.

Modern buildings use heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems to control indoor humidity. Removing excess moisture from the air requires energy.

The researchers believe moisture-harvesting wallpaper could potentially play a role in humidity management while simultaneously producing electricity.

Instead of treating humidity only as something that must be removed, the system could capture some of that moisture and use it as an energy resource.

This does not mean the wallpaper could replace an HVAC system. However, it introduces an interesting possibility: a building material that both manages moisture and produces useful energy.

What Comes Next?

The biggest challenge is increasing the amount of electricity generated.

The current MEGs produce relatively small amounts of power, making them most suitable for low-energy electronics. Researchers will need to improve the materials, architecture and overall efficiency if the technology is going to become practical on a large commercial scale.

Mass production is another important step.

Because the Binghamton design uses printable components, the researchers hope it can eventually be manufactured as large-area wallpaper rather than remaining a small laboratory device.

If those challenges can be overcome, future buildings could potentially use walls as more than passive surfaces.

They could become distributed networks of tiny energy harvesters, collecting moisture from everyday indoor environments and turning it into electricity for the sensors and electronics that make buildings smarter.

The idea represents a different way of thinking about renewable energy. Instead of relying only on sunlight, wind or large power systems, researchers are exploring the tiny amounts of energy hidden in everyday environments—including something as ordinary as water vapor floating through the air inside our homes.

Reference: Guangya Yuan et al, Moist‐Electric Wallpaper With Engineered Unidirectional Moisture Transport for Indoor Energy Harvesting and Humidity Management, Advanced Energy Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1002/aenm.71603

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