Toward Scalable Nanofluidic Osmotic Power Generation from Hypersaline Water Sources with a Metal-Organic Framework Membrane.

Abstract

Nanofluidic membranes have shown great promise in harvesting osmotic energy but its scalablity remains challenging since most studies only tested with a membrane area of ~10-2 mm2 or smaller. We demonstrate that metal-organic-framework membranes with subnanometer pores can be used for scalable osmotic power generation from hypersaline water sources. Our membrane can be scaled up to a few mm2, and the power density can be stabilized at 1.7 W/m2. We reveal that the key is to improve the out-of-membrane conductance while keeping the membrane's charge selectivity, contradicting the previous conception that the ionic conductivity of the membrane plays the dominating role. We highlight that subnanometer pores are essential to ensure the charge selectivity in hypersaline water sources. Our results suggest the importance to engineer the interplay between the in-membrane and out-of-membrane ion transport properties for scalable osmotic power generation.