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Electrophoretic Crystallization of Ultrathin High-performance Metal-organic Framework Membranes
Published on: August 16, 2018
Anomalous thermo-osmotic conversion performance of ionic covalent-organic-framework membranes in response to charge
Weipeng Xian1, Xiuhui Zuo1, Changjia Zhu2
1Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Chemical Engineering Manufacture Technology, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
Abstract:
Increasing the charge density of ionic membranes is believed to be beneficial for generating high output osmotic energy. Herein, we systematically investigated how the membrane charge populations affect permselectivity by decoupling their effects from the impact of the pore structure using a multivariate strategy for constructing covalent-organic-framework membranes. The thermo-osmotic energy conversion efficiency is improved by increasing the membrane charge density, affording 210 W m-2 with a temperature gradient of 40 K. However, this enhancement occurs only within a narrow window, and subsequently, the efficiency plateaued beyond a threshold density (0.04 C m-2). The complex interplay between pore-pore interactions in response to charge variations for ion transport across the upscaled nanoporous membranes helps explain the obtained results. This study has far-reaching implications for the rational design of ionic membranes to augment energy extraction rather than intuitively focusing on achieving high densities.
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