Osmotic power has
emerged as one of the promising candidates for
clean and renewable energy. However, the advancement of present osmotic
power-harvesting technologies, specifically pressure-retarded osmosis
(PRO) in this work, is hindered by the unsatisfactory membrane transport
properties. Herein, we demonstrate the freestanding transition-metal
carbides and graphene oxide hybrid membranes as high-performance PRO
membranes. Due to the elimination of internal concentration polarization,
the freestanding hybrid membrane can achieve a record-high power density
up to approximately 56.4 W m–2 with 2.0 M NaCl as
the draw solution and river water (0.017 M) as the feed water at an
applied hydraulic pressure difference of 9.66 bar. In addition, the
hybrid membranes exhibit enhanced antifouling potential and antibacterial
activity. The facile fabrication of the hybrid membranes shed light
on a new membrane development platform for the highly anticipated
osmotic power-harvesting technologies.
A remote collection of biofluid specimens
such as blood and urine remains a great challenge due to the requirement
of continuous refrigeration. Without proper temperature regulation,
the rapid degradation of analytical targets in the specimen may compromise
the accuracy and reliability of the testing results. In this study,
we develop porous superabsorbent polymer (PSAP) beads for fast and
self-driven “microfiltration” of biofluid samples. This
treatment effectively separates small analytical targets (
e.g.
, glucose, catalase, and bacteriophage) and large undesired
components (
e.g.
, bacteria and blood cells) in the
biofluids by capturing the former inside and excluding the latter
outside the PSAP beads. We have successfully demonstrated that this
treatment can reduce sample volume, self-aliquot the liquid sample,
avoid microbial contamination, separate plasma from blood cells, stabilize
target species inside the beads, and enable long-term storage at room
temperature. Potential practical applications of this technology can
provide an alternative sample collection and storage approach for
medically underserved areas.
Multifunctional CNC/Ag thin film nanocomposite nanofiltration membranes with high flux, high rejection, and excellent antifouling and antibacterial performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.