Salinity‐Gradient Power Generation with Ionized Wood Membranes. Issue 1 (22nd November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Qing‐Yun; Wang, Chengwei; Wang, Ruiliu; Chen, Chaoji; Gao, Jinlong; Dai, Jiaqi; Liu, Dapeng; Lin, Zhiwei; Hu, Liangbing
• Is Part Of: Advanced energy materials. Volume 10:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-11-22
• Subjects: aligned nanochannels -- nanofluidics -- power generation -- salinity‐gradient energy -- wood membranes; Energy harvesting -- Materials -- Periodicals; Energy conversion -- Materials -- Periodicals; Energy storage -- Materials -- Periodicals; Photovoltaics -- Periodicals; Fuel cells -- Periodicals; Thermoelectric materials -- Periodicals; 621.31
• DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201902590
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1614-6832

Abstract

Abstract: Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is known as an efficient way of converting the salinity gradient between river water and sea water into energy. However, the high cost and complex fabrication of the necessary ion exchange membranes greatly prohibit the development of the RED process. For the first time, an ionized wood membrane is demonstrated for this application, benefiting from the advantages of natural wood, which is abundant, low cost, sustainable, and easy to scale. The wood membrane maintains the aligned nanochannels of the cellulose nanofibers derived from the natural wood. The surface of the nanochannels can be functionalized to positively or negatively charged by in situ modifying the hydroxyl groups on the cellulose chains to quaternary ammonium or carboxyl groups, respectively. These charged aligned nanochannels serve as nanofluidic passages for selective ion transport with opposite polarity through the wood membrane, resulting in efficient charge separation and generating an electrochemical potential difference. The all‐wood RED device with 100 cells using a scalable stacking geometry generates an output voltage as high as 9.8 V at open circuit from a system of synthetic river water and sea water. Abstract : An all‐wood reverse electrodialysis device using a scalable stacking geometry of the positively and negatively charged ionized wood membranes is demonstrated for the first time. A high voltage up to 9.89 V can be generated by 100‐pairs of membranes, suggesting their great potential to generate salinity‐gradient power from the system of river water and sea water.