Nanofluidic crystal: a facile, high-efficiency and high-power-density scaling up scheme for energy harvesting based on nanofluidic reverse electrodialysis

Abstract

The great advances in nanotechnology call for advances in miniaturized power sources for micro/nano-scale systems. Nanofluidic channels have received great attention as promising high-power-density substitutes for ion exchange membranes for use in energy harvesting from ambient ionic concentration gradient, namely reverse electrodialysis. This paper proposes the nanofluidic crystal (NFC), of packed nanoparticles in micro-meter-sized confined space, as a facile, high-efficiency and high-power-density scaling-up scheme for energy harvesting by nanofluidic reverse electrodialysis (NRED). Obtained from the self-assembly of nanoparticles in a micropore, the NFC forms an ion-selective network with enormous nanochannels due to electrical double-layer overlap in the nanoparticle interstices. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, a maximum efficiency of 42.3 ± 1.84%, a maximum power density of 2.82 ± 0.22 W m−2, and a maximum output power of 1.17 ± 0.09 nW/unit (nearly three orders of magnitude of amplification compared to other NREDs) were achieved in our prototype cell, which was prepared within 30 min. The current NFC-based prototype cell can be parallelized and cascaded to achieve the desired output power and open circuit voltage. This NFC-based scaling-up scheme for energy harvesting based on NRED is promising for the building of self-powered micro/nano-scale systems.