Extracting salinity gradient energy through a nanomembrane is an efficient way to obtain clean and renewable energy. However, the membranes with undesirable properties, such as low stability, high internal resistance, and low selectivity, would limit the output performance. Herein, we report two-dimensional (2D) laminar nanochannels in the hybrid Ti3C2T x MXene/boron nitride (MXBN) membrane with excellent stability and reduced internal resistance for enhanced salinity gradient energy harvesting. The internal resistance of the MXBN membrane is significantly reduced after adding BN in a pristine MXene membrane, due to the small size and high surface charge density of BN nanosheets. The output power density of the MXBN membrane with 44 wt % BN nanosheets reaches 2.3 W/m2, almost twice that of a pristine MXene membrane. Besides, the output power density can be further increased to 6.2 W/m2 at 336 K and stabilizes for 10 h at 321 K, revealing excellent structure stability of the membrane in long-term aqueous conditions. This work presents a feasible method for improving the channel properties, which provides 2D layered composite membranes in ion transport, energy extraction, and other nanofluidic applications.

No abstract

High-energy asymmetric micro-supercapacitors have been fabricated with diversified planar geometries.

transition metal dichalcogenide membranes have entered the spotlight for nanofiltration application owing to the novel mass transport properties in nanochannels. However, further improving the water permeability with high molecular separation rate simultaneously is challenging. In this work, to achieve ultrafast molecule separation, MoS 2 and WS 2 nanosheets with ultrasmall lateral size (<100 nm) are fabricated by sucrose-assisted mechanochemical exfoliation. Ultrasmall nanosheets in the membranes cut down average length of water-transporting paths and create more nanochannels and nanocapillaries for water molecules to pass through membranes. The water flux of these kinds of MoS 2 and WS 2 membranes are significantly enhanced to 918 and 828 L/m 2 h bar, respectively, which is four and two times higher than those of previously reported MoS 2 and WS 2 membranes with larger lateral size nanosheets. In addition, MoS 2 and WS 2 membranes display excellent rejection performance for rhodamine B and Evans blue with a high rejection rate (∼99%). This study provides a promising method to improve the performance of 2D laminar membranes for nanofiltration application by using ultrasmall 2D nanosheets.

BackgroundStimuli-responsive polymer materials are a new kind of intelligent materials based on the concept of bionics, which exhibits more significant changes in physicochemical properties upon triggered by tiny environment stimuli, hence providing a good carrier platform for antitumor drug delivery.ResultsDual stimuli-responsive Fe3O4 graft poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl ferrocenecarboxylate) block copolymers (Fe3O4-g-PAA-b-PMAEFC) were engineered and synthesized through a two-step sequential reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization route. The characterization was performed by FTIR, 1H NMR, SEC, XRD and TGA techniques. The self-assembly behavior in aqueous solution upon triggered by pH, magnetic and redox stimuli was investigated via zeta potentials, vibration sample magnetometer, cyclic voltammetry, fluorescent spectrometry, dynamic light scattering, XPS, TEM and SEM measurements. The experimental results indicated that the Fe3O4-g-PAA-b-PMAEFC copolymer materials could spontaneously assemble into hybrid magnetic copolymer micromicelles with core–shell structure, and exhibited superparamagnetism, redox and pH stimuli-responsive features. The hybrid copolymer micromicelles were stable and nontoxic, and could entrap hydrophobic anticancer drug, which was in turn swiftly and effectively delivered from the drug-loaded micromicelles at special microenvironments such as acidic pH and high reactive oxygen species.ConclusionThis class of stimuli-responsive copolymer materials is expected to find wide applications in medical science and biology, etc., especially in drug delivery system.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12951-017-0309-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.