Experimental Study on the Effects of Applied Electric Field on Liquid Infiltration into Hydrophobic Zeolite

Abstract

A nanofluidic energy absorption system (NEAS) is composed of nanoporous material and functional liquid with high energy absorption density. Applying an electric field to adjust the energy absorption characteristics of a nanofluidic system will open broader prospects for its application. In the current work, ZSM-5 zeolite was adopted as the nanoporous material and water, a 25% KCl solution, and a saturated KCl solution were adopted as functional liquids to configure NEASs. Pressure-induced infiltration experiments were carried out to study the infiltration and defiltration characteristics of the NEASs under the action of an applied electric field. The results show that the introduction of an applied electric field can weaken the hydrogen bonds between molecules, thus reducing the equivalent surface tension and contact angle, changing the infiltrability of liquid molecules into the nanopores, and reducing the infiltration pressure of the system. In an electrolyte solution/zeolite system, the anions and cations move close to the two plate electrodes under the action of an external electric field, and the fluid properties in the central zone of the pressure chamber are close to the water/zeolite system. For both an ultra-low conductivity liquid and an electrolyte solution/zeolite system, applying an electric field can effectively improve the relative outflow rate of liquid, thus improving the reusability of the system.

Study of Temperature Effect on Cascade Characteristics of Nanofluidic Energy Absorption System

“…The reliability of the MD simulation model was verified with our previous experimental data as published in reference [32]. In the experimental, pressure-volume performance tests were conducted on NEAS composed of ZSM-5 zeolite and deionized water.…”

“…With the development of fabrication technologies, more diverse nanoporous media [8][9][10] can be prepared, which greatly enriches the functions and applications of NEAS. It was demonstrated in previous studies that the liquid infiltration behavior in the nano-environment is sensitive to the internal factors such as size and configuration of nanopores [11][12][13], types and concentrations of functional liquids [14][15][16][17][18], and the amount of residual gas [19][20][21], as well as external factors such as temperature [22][23][24][25], loading rate [26,27], and electric field [28][29][30][31][32]. Among which, the size of nanopores plays a decisive role in the influence of infiltration pressure, and configuration influences the transport behavior during the liquid molecules infiltration process.…”

Spontaneous Dipole Reorientation in Confined Water and Its Effect on Wetting/Dewetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores

“…The experimental evidence of the intrusion pressure decrease due to external electric field was obtained for ZSM-5 (MFI) zeolite . This zeolite has a 3D network of narrow channels.…”

“…The experimental evidence of the intrusion pressure decrease due to external electric field was obtained for ZSM-5 (MFI) zeolite. 70 This zeolite has a 3D network of narrow channels. Therefore, at any moment in the zeolite–water dispersion, only a small part of water molecules in micropores are oriented along the applied electric field.…”