Electrokinetic energy conversion in nanofluidic channels: addressing the loose ends in nanodevice efficiency

We bring out a nontrivial coupling of the intrinsic wettability, surface charge, and electrokinetic energy conversion characteristics of nanofluidic devices. Our analyses demonstrate that nanofluidic energy conversion efficiencies may get amplified with increase in surface charge density, not perpetually, but only over a narrow regime of low surface charges, and may get significantly arrested to reach a plateau beyond a threshold surface charging condition, as attributed to a complex interplay between fluid structuration and ionic transport within a charged interfacial layer. We explain the corresponding findings from our molecular dynamics simulations with the aid of a simple modified continuum based theory. We attribute our findings to hitherto-unexplored four-way integration of surface charge, interfacial slip, ionic transport, and the water molecule structuration. The consequent complex nonlinear nature of the energy transfer characteristics may bear far-ranging scientific and technological implications toward design, synthesis, and operation of futuristic energy conversion devices of molecular length scales.