Disequilibrium · disequilibrium:humidity-gradient

Humidity gradient

Air drier than a wet surface. Evaporation of water into unsaturated air is a large, mostly untapped ambient free-energy flux.

symbol ΔRHChemistryenergy form chemicalexergy positivealso: moisture gradient, evaporation potential, vapour pressure deficit

Atlas record: 1 claim references this disequilibrium — 1 established.

Explorerelations · matrix context · routes · sources · cite

conditions: humidity difference required

1claims4enumerated routes3routes with complete-composition evidence1candidate routes not searched2cited sources

Relations

drives · 1

Humidity gradient—drives→Evaporationestablished

Matrix context

D = disequilibrium row · C = coupling family column. A cell reads the state of the atlas for that pair.

C.01 Thermoelectric C.02 Thermionic C.03 Thermoacoustic C.04 Pyroelectric C.05 Thermogalvanic C.06 Thermomagnetic C.07 Thermophotovoltaic C.08 Heat engine (thermomechanical)C.09 Caloric (magneto/electro/elasto)C.10 Piezoelectric C.11 Flexoelectric C.12 Triboelectric C.13 Electrostatic (variable capacitance)C.14 Electromagnetic induction C.15 Magnetostrictive C.16 Magnetoelectric C.17 Spin caloritronic C.18 Photovoltaic C.19 Photoelectrochemical C.20 Photothermal C.21 Electrochemical C.22 Osmotic / salinity-gradient C.23 Electrokinetic C.24 Turbomachinery C.25 Magnetohydrodynamic C.26 Radiovoltaic C.27 Nuclear heat C.28 Rectenna C.29 Thermochemical C.30 Biological C.31 Fluctuation / information-driven C.32 Photon momentum C.33 Thermodiffusive C.34 Marangoni C.35 Acoustoelectric C.36 Photodiffusive C.37 Thermo-osmotic C.38 Electrohydrodynamic C.39 Radioluminescent C.40 Thermopolarization

Enumerated routes through this · 4

Evaporation-driven engine2/3 est · demonstrated
Hydrovoltaic generator2/5 est · demonstrated
Evaporation-driven oscillator generator4/5 est · demonstrated
Humidity gradient → Evaporation → Mechanical motion → Rotating-machine generator action → Charge carriers → Electrical work4/5 est · candidate

Cited sources · 2

[1]
X. Chen et al.. Scaling up nanoscale water-driven energy conversion into evaporation-driven engines and generators (2015)
Nature Communications 6, 7346 · doi:10.1038/ncomms8346 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record
[2]
A. Bejan. Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics (4th ed.) (2016)
Wiley · doi:10.1002/9781119245964 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record

Cite this entity

Physical Transformation Atlas (2026). entity disequilibrium:humidity-gradient: Humidity gradient. Dataset revision rbfbfcbb70e57 (hash of the canonical data). https://physical-transformation-atlas.wldud5192.workers.dev/e/disequilibrium/humidity-gradient

Ids and matrix addresses are stable across revisions; the revision hash identifies the exact canonical files the record was compiled from and is meta.data_hash in every /api export. Reuse terms: see the license field in any export.