The adaptability to wide salinities remains a big challenge for artificial nanofluidic systems, which plays a vital role in water–energy nexus science. Here, inspired by euryhaline fish, sandwich‐structured nanochannel systems are constructed to realize salinity self‐adaptive nanofluidic diodes, which lead to high‐performance salinity‐gradient power generators with low internal resistance. Adaptive to changing salinity, the pore morphology of one side of the nanochannel system switches from a 1D straight nanochannel (45 nm) to 3D network pores (1.9 nm pore size and ≈1013 pore density), along with three orders of magnitude change for charge density. Thus, the abundant surface charges and narrow pores render the membrane‐based osmotic power generator with power density up to 26.22 Wm−2. The salinity‐adaptive membrane solves the surface charge‐shielding problem caused by abundant mobile ions in high salinity and increases the overlapping degree of the electric double layer. The dynamic adaption process of the membrane to the hypersaline environment endows it with good salt endurance and stability. New routes for designing nanofluidic devices functionally adaptable to different salinities and building power generators with excellent salt endurance are demonstrated.
Biomimetic smart nanochannels can regulate ion transport behavior responsive to the external stimuli, having huge potential in nanofluidic devices, sensors and energy conversion. Field-effect nanofluidic diodes or transistors based on electric-responsive nanochannels are emerging owing to their advantages such as non-invasiveness, in situ, real time, and high efficiency. However, simultaneously realizing the voltage-control of the ion conductance and ion current rectification (ICR) properties is still a big challenge. Here, a field-effect iontronic device is developed based on ionomer/anodic aluminum oxide/conducting polymer sandwich-structured nanochannel to realize the multi-control of ion transport behaviors including ion conductance, ICR magnitude, and ICR direction by modulating the surface charge, wettability, and morphology of the nanochannel. The electroactive conducting polymer carries tunable surface charges responsive to the electric stimuli, leading to the regulation of ICR values. The complex three-segment structures lead to the reverse of ICR direction by reconfiguring the charge distribution along with the whole channel. The switching wettability between hydrophilic and hydrophobic results in the regulation of ion conductance. Furthermore, the field-effect iontronic device functions in a wide salinity range especially in hypersaline environment, due to the salinity-adaptive properties of the membrane. A new route is provided for designing more functional field-effect nanofluidic devices.
Using municipal and industrial solid waste as a substitute raw material and fuel in cement rotary kiln co-processing is considered an economic and environmentally friendly alternative to the use of traditional fuels. However, the presence of heavy metals in solid waste is a growing concern in the cement rotary kiln co-processing technique. The solidification mechanism of heavy metals in cement clinker is directly related to their stabilization. Cement clinkers doped with manganese oxide (MnO2: 0.0%–5.0% wt%) were prepared in a laboratory to investigate the impacts of extrinsic Mn on cement clinker calcination. The insignificant changes in X-ray diffractometer patterns indicated that the fixed Mn had little influence on the mineral lattice structure. Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed the transformation of the silicate phase when the Mn dose was increased. Moreover, the satisfactory solidification ratio confirmed the incorporation of Mn in the cement clinker. These results provided evidence of the influence rule of Mn in the cement clinker calcination process. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy showed great potential for the qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of the cementitious materials derived from cement rotary kiln co-processing. These results will be important for the further development of green cement manufacturing technology.
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