TY - JOUR
T1 - Ultrathin and ion-selective Janus membranes for high-performance osmotic energy conversion
AU - Zhang, Zhen
AU - Sui, Xin
AU - Li, Pei
AU - Xie, Ganhua
AU - Kong, Xiang-Yu
AU - Xiao, Kai
AU - Gao, Longcheng
AU - Wen, Liping
AU - Jiang, Lei
PY - 2017/7/5
Y1 - 2017/7/5
N2 - The osmotic energy existing in fluids is recognized as a promising "blue" energy source that can help solve the global issues of energy shortage and environmental pollution. Recently, nanofluidic channels have shown great potential for capturing this worldwide energy because of their novel transport properties contributed by nanoconfinement. However, with respect to membrane-scale porous systems, high resistance and undesirable ion selectivity remain bottlenecks, impeding their applications. The development of thinner, low-resistance membranes, meanwhile promoting their ion selectivity, is a necessity. Here, we engineered ultrathin and ion-selective Janus membranes prepared via the phase separation of two block copolymers, which enable osmotic energy conversion with power densities of approximately 2.04 W/m2 by mixing natural seawater and river water. Both experiments and continuum simulation help us to understand the mechanism for how membrane thickness and channel structure dominate the ion transport process and overall device performance, which can serve as a general guiding principle for the future design of nanochannel membranes for high-energy concentration cells.
AB - The osmotic energy existing in fluids is recognized as a promising "blue" energy source that can help solve the global issues of energy shortage and environmental pollution. Recently, nanofluidic channels have shown great potential for capturing this worldwide energy because of their novel transport properties contributed by nanoconfinement. However, with respect to membrane-scale porous systems, high resistance and undesirable ion selectivity remain bottlenecks, impeding their applications. The development of thinner, low-resistance membranes, meanwhile promoting their ion selectivity, is a necessity. Here, we engineered ultrathin and ion-selective Janus membranes prepared via the phase separation of two block copolymers, which enable osmotic energy conversion with power densities of approximately 2.04 W/m2 by mixing natural seawater and river water. Both experiments and continuum simulation help us to understand the mechanism for how membrane thickness and channel structure dominate the ion transport process and overall device performance, which can serve as a general guiding principle for the future design of nanochannel membranes for high-energy concentration cells.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021866290&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/jacs.7b02794
DO - 10.1021/jacs.7b02794
M3 - Article
C2 - 28602079
AN - SCOPUS:85021866290
SN - 0002-7863
VL - 139
SP - 8905
EP - 8914
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
IS - 26
ER -