Energy harvesting with bio-inspired synthetic nanochannels

Abstract

With more than four billion years evolution and selection, natural creatures inherit almost perfect functional structures to harvesting clean energy from their living environments. Particularly, biological ion channels and pumps on cell membrane play a crucial role in many bioelectrogenesis processes. Learning from Nature, such as the electric eels, the synthesis of ATP molecules, the Bacteriorhodopsin on retina, etc, provides new approaches for the construction of novel energy conversion systems. In this review article, we briefly summarize the three most intensively studied topics on the clean energy conversion system with bio-inspired nanochannels and nanopores, which are the nanofluidic electrokinetic conversion systems, the nanofluidic reverse electrodialysis systems, and these newly arisen advanced energy conversion system with smart synthetic ion channels. In a predictable future, the performance of these bio-inspired energy conversion system will surly exceed the present achievements of the conventional man-made systems. The bio-mimetic and bio-inspired strategies provide new insights into future energy conversion techniques.