세미나

In this talk, I will present nanoscale transport phenomena driven by solute or temperature difference.
Firstly, I will demonstrate that the liquid flow can be generated by various types of solutes within
nanochannels. The underlying mechanism for interfacially driven flow is closely associated with the molecular
interactions between the surface and solutes, which can be captured with the simple theoretical expression.
Then, the liquid flow driven by the temperature gradient will be demonstrated, while it is shown that the
response to the temperature gradient varies with the surface type due to the different liquid molecule-surface
interaction.
Secondly, I will introduce the power generation due to a differential ion transport across nanoporous
membrane in the presence of salinity difference. First, I will show how the simple modification of the access
area to the membrane can be utilized to enhance the energy conversion efficiency from salinity difference
across the membrane. It is demonstrated that this strategy can be utilized in the conventional Nafion
membrane as well as thin graphene-oxide based membrane. Then, it is demonstrated that the temperature
difference across the membrane can be combined with the salinity difference to boost the power generation.
Based on a simple transport model, it is proposed that the reduced concentration polarization at the low
concentration side is responsible for power enhancement.