Source: Global Times
US Science Daily website, March 9th article, original title: Scientists Create "Smooth Nanopores" to Significantly Improve the Efficiency of "Blue Energy" "Osmotic energy", commonly known as "blue energy", is a new way to produce renewable electricity by using the natural mixing of salt water and fresh water. When salt water and fresh water meet, ions in the salt water move towards the low-salt fresh water through a special "ion-selective membrane". The energy generated by this process can be used for power generation.
Despite its great potential, this technology has long faced serious challenges. Permeable membranes designed to allow ions to pass often lose their ability to effectively separate charges and have poor durability, causing most osmotic energy generation systems to remain at the stage of laboratory experiments.
A recent study published in the German journal "Nature Energy" shows that under the leadership of Alexandra Radenovic from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), scientists from EPFL's NanoBio Laboratory and researchers from the Interdisciplinary Center for Electron Microscopy have collaborated to find a solution to these problems. The team wrapped small lipid bubbles called "liposomes" around the "nanopores" of the permeable membrane to improve ion movement on both sides of the membrane. Under normal conditions, these nanopores allow ions to pass through with high precision but at an extremely slow speed. However, when coated with liposomes, the nanopores reduce friction, allowing specific ions to pass more quickly, thus improving the overall performance of the system.
Radenovic said: "By combining scalable permeable membranes with precisely designed nano-ion channels, we have achieved efficient osmotic energy conversion, opening up a path toward the future of blue energy." The lubricating coating design used in the study is based on the lipid bilayer structure commonly found in living cell membranes. To test this design, the researchers created a thin film containing 1000 lipid-coated nanopores arranged in a hexagonal pattern. Then, they tested the device under conditions simulating the natural salinity levels at the intersection of seawater and river water. This system achieved a power density of about 15 watts per square meter, with output power approximately two to three times that of conventional osmotic membrane technology. This technology has the potential to make "blue energy" a powerful source of renewable electricity.
"Precise control over the geometry and surface properties of nanopores fundamentally changes ion transport on the permeable membrane. Our research takes blue energy research beyond the stage of performance testing and into the era of real applications," said a researcher from the NanoBio Laboratory. The first author of the study pointed out that the "hydrous lubrication" strategy used by the team may not be limited to application in osmotic energy systems; the same principle could be used to design non-blue energy power generation devices." (Authors: Pratik Shah et al., translated by Wang Huicong)
Original: toutiao.com/article/7616131682026226202/
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