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Yu F, Li J, Jiang Y, Wang L, Yang X, Yang Y, Li X, Jiang K, Lü W, Sun X. High Hydrovoltaic Power Density Achieved by Universal Evaporating Potential Devices. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2023; 10:e2302941. [PMID: 37712146 PMCID: PMC10602524 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202302941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2023] [Revised: 08/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
While hydrovoltaic electrical energy generation developments in very recent years have provided an alternative strategy to generate electricity from the direct interaction of materials with water, the two main issues still need to be addressed: achieving satisfactory output power density and understanding the reliable mechanism. In the present work, the integration of capacitors and water evaporation devices is proposed to provide a stable power supply. The feasible device structure consuming only water and air is green and environmentally sustainable, achieving a recorded power density of 142.72 µW cm-2 . The output power of the series of devices is sufficient to drive portable electronic products with different voltage and current requirements, enabling self-driving systems for portable appliances. It has been shown that the working behavior originates from evaporating potential other than streaming potential. The present work provides both theoretical support and an experimental design for realizing practical application of hydrovoltaic electrical energy generation devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fei Yu
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
| | - Jialun Li
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
| | - Yi Jiang
- School of ScienceChangchun Institute of TechnologyChangchun130012P. R. China
| | - Liying Wang
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
| | - Xijia Yang
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
| | - Yue Yang
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
| | - Xuesong Li
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
| | - Ke Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and PhysicsChinese Academy of SciencesChangchun130033P. R. China
| | - Wei Lü
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education & Advanced Institute of Materials ScienceChangchun University of TechnologyChangchun130012P.R. China
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and PhysicsChinese Academy of SciencesChangchun130033P. R. China
| | - Xiaojuan Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and PhysicsChinese Academy of SciencesChangchun130033P. R. China
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Abbasi N, Nunes JK, Pan Z, Dethe T, Shum HC, Košmrlj A, Stone HA. Flows of a nonequilibrated aqueous two-phase system in a microchannel. SOFT MATTER 2023; 19:3551-3561. [PMID: 37144458 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00233k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Liquid-liquid phase separation is a rich and dynamic process, which recently has gained new interest, especially in biology and for material synthesis. In this work, we experimentally show that co-flow of a nonequilibrated aqueous two-phase system within a planar flow-focusing microfluidic device results in a three-dimensional flow, as the two nonequilibrated solutions move downstream along the length of the microchannel. After the system reaches steady-state, invasion fronts from the outer stream are formed along the top and bottom walls of the microfluidic device. The invasion fronts advance towards the center of the channel, until they merge. We first show by tuning the concentration of polymer species within the system that the formation of these fronts is due to liquid-liquid phase separation. Moreover, the rate of invasion from the outer stream increases with increasing polymer concentrations in the streams. We hypothesize the invasion front formation and growth is driven by Marangoni flow induced by the polymer concentration gradient along the width of the channel, as the system is undergoing phase separation. In addition, we show how at various downstream positions the system reaches its steady-state configuration once the two fluid streams flow side-by-side in the channel.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niki Abbasi
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
| | - Janine K Nunes
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
| | - Zehao Pan
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
| | - Tejas Dethe
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
| | - Ho Cheung Shum
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Andrej Košmrlj
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
- Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Howard A Stone
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
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May A, Hartmann J, Hardt S. Phase separation in evaporating all-aqueous sessile drops. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:6313-6317. [PMID: 35993409 DOI: 10.1039/d2sm00613h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The phase transition and phase distribution in an all-aqueous sessile drop containing polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dextran is studied. Evaporation of water triggers the formation of dextran-rich droplets close to the contact line of the drop that subsequently migrate towards the drop center. The likely reason for the droplet migration is Marangoni convection due to stresses at the interface between the dextran-rich droplets and the surrounding liquid.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander May
- Technische Universität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Maschinenbau, Fachgebiet Nano-und Mikrofluidik, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 10, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
| | - Johannes Hartmann
- Technische Universität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Maschinenbau, Fachgebiet Nano-und Mikrofluidik, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 10, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
| | - Steffen Hardt
- Technische Universität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Maschinenbau, Fachgebiet Nano-und Mikrofluidik, Alarich-Weiss-Str. 10, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
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Abstract
The interplay between phase separation and wetting of multicomponent mixtures is ubiquitous in nature and technology and recently gained significant attention across scientific disciplines, due to the discovery of biomolecular condensates. It is well understood that sessile droplets, undergoing phase separation in a static wetting configuration, exhibit microdroplet nucleation at their contact lines, forming an oil ring during later stages. However, very little is known about the dynamic counterpart, when phase separation occurs in a nonequilibrium wetting configuration, i.e., spreading droplets. Here we show that liquid-liquid phase separation strongly couples to the spreading motion of three-phase contact lines. Thus, the classical Cox-Voinov law is not applicable anymore, because phase separation adds an active spreading force beyond the capillary driving. Intriguingly, we observe that spreading starts well before any visible nucleation of microdroplets in the main droplet. Using high-speed ellipsometry, we further demonstrate that the evaporation-induced enrichment, together with surface forces, causes an even earlier nucleation in the wetting precursor film around the droplet, initiating the observed wetting transition. We expect our findings to improve the fundamental understanding of phase separation processes that involve dynamical contact lines and/or surface forces, with implications in a wide range of applications, from oil recovery or inkjet printing to material synthesis and biomolecular condensates.
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Cheng B, Zhao H, Yang J, Zhao J. Continuous evolution of the re-entrant phase separation in evaporating droplets of polymer solutions. POLYMER 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2021.124327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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Zhuang K, Lu Y, Wang X, Yang X. Architecture-Driven Fast Droplet Transport without Mass Loss. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2021; 37:12519-12528. [PMID: 34606720 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c01608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Spontaneous droplet transport without mass loss has great potential applications in the fields of energy and biotechnology, but it remains challenging due to the difficulty in obtaining a sufficient driving force for the transport while suppressing droplet mass loss. Learning from the slippery peristome of Nepenthes alata and wedge topology of a shorebird beak that can spontaneously feed water against gravity, a combined system consisting of two face-to-face hydrophilic slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) with variable beak-like opening and spacing was proposed to constrain the droplet in-between and initiate fast droplet transport over a long distance of 75 mm with a maximum speed of 12.2 mm·s-1 without mass loss by taking advantage of the Laplace pressure gradient induced by the asymmetric shape of the constrained droplet. The theoretical model based on the Navier-Stokes equation was developed to interpret the corresponding mechanism of the droplet transport process. In addition, in situ sophisticated droplet manipulations such as droplet mixing are readily feasible when applying flexible 304 stainless foil as the substrate of SLIPS. It is believed that extended research would contribute to new references for the precise and fast droplet motion control intended for energy harvest and water collection devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Zhuang
- College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
| | - Yao Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, U.K
| | - Xiaolei Wang
- College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
| | - Xiaolong Yang
- College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Precision and Micro-Manufacturing Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, PR China
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Wang X, Jia P, Sun S, He X, Lu TJ, Xu F, Feng S. Evaporation-Induced Diffusion Acceleration in Liquid-Filled Porous Materials. ACS OMEGA 2021; 6:21646-21654. [PMID: 34471768 PMCID: PMC8388088 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c03052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Liquid-filled porous materials exist widely in nature and engineering fields, with the diffusion of substances in them playing an important role in system functions. Although surface evaporation is often inevitable in practical scenarios, the evaporation effects on diffusion behavior in liquid-filled porous materials have not been well explored yet. In this work, we performed noninvasive diffusion imaging experiments to observe the diffusion process of erioglaucine disodium salt dye in a liquid-filled nitrocellulose membrane under a wide range of relative humidities (RHs). We found that evaporation can significantly accelerate the diffusion rate and alter concentration distribution compared with the case without evaporation. We explained the accelerated diffusion phenomenon by the mechanism that evaporation would induce a weak flow in liquid-filled porous materials, which leads to convective diffusion, i.e., evaporation-induced flow and diffusion (EIFD). Based on the EIFD mechanism, we proposed a convective diffusion model to quantitatively predict the diffusion process in liquid-filled porous materials under evaporation and experimentally validated the model. Introducing the dimensionless Peclet (P e) number to measure the relative contribution of the evaporation effect to pure molecular diffusion, we demonstrated that even at a high RH of 95%, where the evaporation effect is usually assumed negligible in common sense, the evaporation-induced diffusion still overwhelms the molecular diffusion. The flow velocity induced by evaporation in liquid-filled porous materials was found to be 0.4-5 μm/s, comparable to flow in many biological and biomedical systems. The present analysis may help to explain the driving mechanism of tissue perfusion and provide quantitative analysis or inspire new control methods of flow and material exchange in numerous cutting-edge technologies, such as paper-based diagnostics, hydrogel-based flexible electronics, evaporation-induced electricity generation, and seawater purification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuefeng Wang
- The
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of
Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P. R. China
- Bioinspired
Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.
R. China
| | - Pengpeng Jia
- The
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of
Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P. R. China
- Bioinspired
Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.
R. China
| | - Shanyouming Sun
- Bioinspired
Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.
R. China
| | - Xiaocong He
- The
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of
Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P. R. China
- Bioinspired
Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.
R. China
| | - Tian Jian Lu
- State
Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China
- Nanjing
Center for Multifunctional Lightweight Materials and Structures (MLMS), Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China
| | - Feng Xu
- The
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of
Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P. R. China
- Bioinspired
Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.
R. China
| | - Shangsheng Feng
- The
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of
Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P. R. China
- Bioinspired
Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.
R. China
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