A sulfonated ultramicroporous membrane with selective ion transport enables osmotic energy extraction from multiform salt solutions with exceptional efficiency

Abstract

Membrane-based electrochemical devices can extract electricity from solutions of different salinity, namely osmotic energy. This is, however, limited to salinity differences between seawater and river water, whereas the efficiency is...

Surfactant‐Assisted Sulfonated Covalent Organic Nanosheets: Extrinsic Charge for Improved Ion Transport and Salinity‐Gradient Energy Harvesting

“…The I – V curves of membranes were measured to obtain the open‐circuit cell voltage ( V OC ) and short‐circuit current ( I SC ), according to the corresponding intercepts of their axes. [ 15 ] As shown in Figure 4b, the I SC value of SCON/SLS membrane reached 14.37 µA, which exhibited an improvement of approximately 140% compared with that (5.97 µA) of the SCON membrane. The increase of I SC was attributed to the extrinsic surface charges of SLS.…”

Efficient solar energy conversion via bionic sunlight-driven ion transport boosted by synergistic photo-electric/thermal effects

“…Salinity gradient power, also known as osmotic energy, has attracted wide attention owing to its unique features including abundant reservation and renewability. 50 Recently, with the considerable development of high-performance membranes, which could efficiently discriminate ions with different charge polarities, reverse electrodialysis (RED) has been identified as the most promising technique for osmotic energy harvesting. 51 In this method, in this work, light was introduced directly into the traditional RED system to explore if the light-driven directional ion transport could be utilized to further improve the osmotic energy conversion efficiency.…”

Alkali-Stable Anion Exchange Membranes Based on Poly(xanthene)

“…Synthetic approaches toward highly conductive and chemically stable AEMs are currently intensively pursued via direct polymerization and postpolymerization functionalization strategies . Especially, membrane materials based on highly rigid aromatic polymers with contorted structures have received growing interest. − In this context, various polyhydroxyalkylation procedures are now developed as attractive pathways to rigid and high molecular weight aromatic polymers which may serve as a starting point for durable and processable AEM materials. , Polyhydroxyalkylation is a type of Friedel–Crafts polycondensation reaction where, e.g., a trifluoromethyl ketone reacts with electron-rich arene in a superacidic medium to yield a polymer with high molecular weight (>100 kDa) and narrow polydispersity . Here, the polymer structure is highly tunable because of the wide choice of monomers.…”

“…Lately, sulfonated PX membranes have been reported to reach high proton conductivity at relatively low ion exchange capacities (IECs) . Subsequently, the membranes were applied in the production of osmotic energy with a high efficiency . Moreover, nonionic PXs have been found to enable fast gas transport due to a considerable free volume fraction provided by the rigid xanthene units .…”

“… 15 Subsequently, the membranes were applied in the production of osmotic energy with a high efficiency. 17 Moreover, nonionic PXs have been found to enable fast gas transport due to a considerable free volume fraction provided by the rigid xanthene units. 18 Although the quite unique molecular structure of PX shows great potential for membrane applications, it has not yet been explored and evaluated for AEMs.…”