Issue 19, 2016

Enhanced energy harvesting by concentration gradient-driven ion transport in SBA-15 mesoporous silica thin films

Abstract

Nanofluidic energy harvesting systems have attracted interest in the field of battery application, particularly for miniaturized electrical devices, because they possess excellent energy conversion capability for their size. In this study, a mesoporous silica (MPS)-based nanofluidic energy harvesting system was fabricated and selective ion transport in mesopores as a function of the salt gradient was investigated. Aqueous solutions with three different kinds of monovalent electrolytes—KCl, NaCl, and LiCl—with different diffusion coefficients (D+) were considered. The highest power density was 3.90 W m−2 for KCl, followed by 2.39 W m−2 for NaCl and 1.29 W m−2 for LiCl. Furthermore, the dependency of power density on the type of cation employed indicates that the harvested energy increases as the cation mobility increases, particularly at high concentrations. This cation-specific dependency suggests that the maximum power density increases by increasing the diffusion coefficient ratio of cations to anions, making this ratio a critical parameter in enhancing the performance of nanofluidic energy harvesting systems with extremely small pores ranging from 2 to 3 nm.

Graphical abstract: Enhanced energy harvesting by concentration gradient-driven ion transport in SBA-15 mesoporous silica thin films

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jul 2016
Accepted
17 Aug 2016
First published
17 Aug 2016

Lab Chip, 2016,16, 3824-3832

Enhanced energy harvesting by concentration gradient-driven ion transport in SBA-15 mesoporous silica thin films

J. Hwang, S. Kataoka, A. Endo and H. Daiguji, Lab Chip, 2016, 16, 3824 DOI: 10.1039/C6LC00844E

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