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Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion

Thermo-osmotic energy conversion using waste heat is one of the approaches to harvesting sustainable energy and reducing associated environmental impacts simultaneously. In principle, ions transport through a charged nanopore membrane under the effect of a thermal gradient, inducing a different volt...

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Autores principales: Mai, Van-Phung, Huang, Wei-Hao, Yang, Ruey-Jen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9416212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36014639
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12162774
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author Mai, Van-Phung
Huang, Wei-Hao
Yang, Ruey-Jen
author_facet Mai, Van-Phung
Huang, Wei-Hao
Yang, Ruey-Jen
author_sort Mai, Van-Phung
collection PubMed
description Thermo-osmotic energy conversion using waste heat is one of the approaches to harvesting sustainable energy and reducing associated environmental impacts simultaneously. In principle, ions transport through a charged nanopore membrane under the effect of a thermal gradient, inducing a different voltage between two sides of the membrane. Recent publications mainly reported novel materials for enhancing the thermoelectric voltage in response to temperature difference, the so-called Seebeck coefficient. However, the effect of the surface charge distribution along nanopores on thermo-osmotic conversion has not been discussed yet. In this paper, a numerical simulation based on the Nernst–Planck–Poisson equations, Navier–Stokes equations, and heat transfer equations is carried out to consider the effect of surface charge-regulation density and pH of KCl solutions on the Seebeck coefficient. The results show that the highest ionic Seebeck coefficient of −0.64 mV/K is obtained at 10(−4) M KCl solution and pH 9. The pH level and pore structure also reveal a strong effect on the thermo-osmotic performance. Moreover, the pH level at one reservoir is varied from 5 to 9, while the pH of 5 is fixed at the other reservoir to investigate the pH effect on the thermos-osmosis ion transport. The results confirm the feasibility that using the pH can enhance the thermo-osmotic conversion for harvesting osmotic power from low-grade heat energy.
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spelling pubmed-94162122022-08-27 Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion Mai, Van-Phung Huang, Wei-Hao Yang, Ruey-Jen Nanomaterials (Basel) Article Thermo-osmotic energy conversion using waste heat is one of the approaches to harvesting sustainable energy and reducing associated environmental impacts simultaneously. In principle, ions transport through a charged nanopore membrane under the effect of a thermal gradient, inducing a different voltage between two sides of the membrane. Recent publications mainly reported novel materials for enhancing the thermoelectric voltage in response to temperature difference, the so-called Seebeck coefficient. However, the effect of the surface charge distribution along nanopores on thermo-osmotic conversion has not been discussed yet. In this paper, a numerical simulation based on the Nernst–Planck–Poisson equations, Navier–Stokes equations, and heat transfer equations is carried out to consider the effect of surface charge-regulation density and pH of KCl solutions on the Seebeck coefficient. The results show that the highest ionic Seebeck coefficient of −0.64 mV/K is obtained at 10(−4) M KCl solution and pH 9. The pH level and pore structure also reveal a strong effect on the thermo-osmotic performance. Moreover, the pH level at one reservoir is varied from 5 to 9, while the pH of 5 is fixed at the other reservoir to investigate the pH effect on the thermos-osmosis ion transport. The results confirm the feasibility that using the pH can enhance the thermo-osmotic conversion for harvesting osmotic power from low-grade heat energy. MDPI 2022-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9416212/ /pubmed/36014639 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12162774 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Mai, Van-Phung
Huang, Wei-Hao
Yang, Ruey-Jen
Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion
title Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion
title_full Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion
title_fullStr Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion
title_full_unstemmed Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion
title_short Charge Regulation and pH Effects on Thermo-Osmotic Conversion
title_sort charge regulation and ph effects on thermo-osmotic conversion
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9416212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36014639
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12162774
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