Dataset Information

Electrokinetic Analysis of Energy Harvest from Natural Salt Gradients in Nanochannels.

ABSTRACT: The Gibbs free energy released during the mixing of river and sea water has been illustrated as a promising source of clean and renewable energy. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is one major strategy to gain electrical power from this natural salinity, and recently by utilizing nanochannels a novel mode of this approach has shown improved power density and energy converting efficiency. In this work, we carry out an electrokinetic analysis of the work extracted from RED in the nanochannels. First, we outline the exclusion potential effect induced by the inhomogeneous distribution of extra-counterions along the channel axis. This effect is unique in nanochannel RED and how to optimize it for energy harvesting is the central topic of this work. We then discuss two important indexes of performance, which are the output power density and the energy converting efficiency, and their dependence on the nanochannel parameters such as channel material and geometry. In order to yield maximized output electrical power, we propose a device design by stepwise usage of the saline bias, and the lengths of the nanochannels are optimized to achieve the best trade-off between the input thermal power and the energy converting efficiency.

SUBMITTER: He Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5640757 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Electrokinetic Analysis of Energy Harvest from Natural Salt Gradients in Nanochannels.

He Yuhui Y Huang Zhuo Z Chen Bowei B Tsutsui Makusu M Shui Miao Xiang X Taniguchi Masateru M

Scientific reports 20171013 1

The Gibbs free energy released during the mixing of river and sea water has been illustrated as a promising source of clean and renewable energy. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is one major strategy to gain electrical power from this natural salinity, and recently by utilizing nanochannels a novel mode of this approach has shown improved power density and energy converting efficiency. In this work, we carry out an electrokinetic analysis of the work extracted from RED in the nanochannels. First, ...[more]

PMID: 29030615

Similar Datasets

Project description:With advances in the design and fabrication of nanofluidic devices during the last decade, there have been a few reports on nucleic acid analysis using nanoscale electrophoresis. The attractive nature of nanofluidics is the unique phenomena associated with this length scale that are not observed using microchip electrophoresis. Many of these effects are surface-related and include electrostatics, surface roughness, van der Waals interactions, hydrogen bonding, and the electric double layer. The majority of reports related to nanoscale electrophoresis have utilized glass-based devices, which are not suitable for broad dissemination into the separation community because of the sophisticated, time consuming, and high-cost fabrication methods required to produce the relevant devices. In this study, we report the use of thermoplastic nanochannels (110 nm x 110 nm, depth x width) for the free solution electrokinetic analysis of ribonucleotide monophosphates (rNMPs). Thermoplastic devices with micro- and nanofluidic networks were fabricated using nanoimprint lithography (NIL) with the structures enclosed via thermal fusion bonding of a cover plate to the fluidic substrate. Unique to this report is that we fabricated devices in cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) that was thermally fusion bonded to a COC cover plate. Results using COC/COC devices were compared to poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, devices with a COC cover plate. Our results indicated that at pH = 7.9, the electrophoresis in free solution resulted in an average resolution of the rNMPs >4 (COC/COC device range = 1.94 - 8.88; PMMA/COC device range = 1.4 - 7.8) with some of the rNMPs showing field-dependent electrophoretic mobilities. Baseline separation of the rNMPs was not possible using PMMA- or COC-based microchip electrophoresis. We also found that COC/COC devices could be assembled and UV/O3 activated after device assembly with the dose of the UV/O3 affecting the magnitude of the electroosmotic flow, EOF. In addition, the bond strength between the substrate and cover plate of unmodified COC/COC devices was higher compared to PMMA/COC devices. The large differences in the electrophoretic mobilities of the rNMPs afforded by nanoscale electrophoresis will enable a new single-molecule sequencing platform we envision, which uses molecular-dependent electrophoretic mobilities to identify the constituent rNMPs generated from an intact RNA molecule using a processive exonuclease. With optimized nanoscale electrophoresis, the rNMPs could be identified via mobility matching at an accuracy >99% in both COC/COC and PMMA/COC devices.

Project description:The electrokinetic behavior of molecules in nanochannels (<100?nm in length) have generated interest due to the unique transport properties observed that are not seen in microscale channels. These nanoscale dependent transport properties include transverse electromigration arising from partial electrical double layer overlap, enhanced solute/wall interactions due to the small channel diameter, and field-dependent intermittent motion produced by surface roughness. In this study, the electrokinetic transport properties of deoxynucleotide monophosphates (dNMPs) were investigated, including the effects of electric field strength, surface effects, and composition of the carrier electrolyte (ionic concentration and pH). The dNMPs were labeled with a fluorescent reporter (ATTO 532) to allow tracking of the electrokinetic transport of the dNMPs through a thermoplastic nanochannel fabricated via nanoimprinting (110?nm?×?110?nm, width?×?depth, and 100??m in length). We discovered that the transport properties in plastic nanochannels of the dye-labeled dNMPs produced differences in their apparent mobilities that were not seen using microscale columns. We built histograms for each dNMP from their apparent mobilities under different operating conditions and fit the histograms to Gaussian functions from which the separation resolution could be deduced as a metric to gage the ability to identify the molecule based on their apparent mobility. We found that the resolution ranged from 0.73 to 2.13?at pH?=?8.3. Changing the carrier electrolyte pH?>?10 significantly improved separation resolution (0.80-4.84) and reduced the standard deviation in the Gaussian fit to the apparent mobilities. At low buffer concentrations, decreases in separation resolution and increased standard deviations in Gaussian fits to the apparent mobilities of dNMPs were observed due to the increased thickness of the electric double layer leading to a partial parabolic flow profile. The results secured for the dNMPs in thermoplastic nanochannels revealed a high identification efficiency (>99%) in most cases for the dNMPs due to differences in their apparent mobilities when using nanochannels, which could not be achieved using microscale columns.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Forests and the forest sector may play an important role in mitigating climate change. The Paris Agreement and the recent legislative proposal to include the land use sector in the EU 2030 climate targets reflect this expectation. However, greater confidence on estimates from national greenhouse gas inventories (GHGI) and more comprehensive analyses of mitigation options are needed to seize this mitigation potential. The aim of this paper is to provide a tool at EU level for verifying the EU GHGI and for simulating specific policy and forest management scenarios. Therefore, the Carbon Budget Model (CBM) was applied for an integrated assessment of the EU forest carbon (C) balance from 2000 to 2012, including: (i) estimates of the C stock and net CO2 emissions for forest management (FM), afforestation/reforestation (AR) and deforestation (D), covering carbon in both the forest and the harvest wood product (HWP) pools; (ii) an overall analysis of the C dynamics associated with harvest and natural disturbances (mainly storms and fires); (iii) a comparison of our estimates with the data reported in the EU GHGI. RESULTS:Overall, the average annual FM sink (-365 Mt CO2 year-1) estimated by the CBM in the period 2000-2012 corresponds to about 7 % of total GHG emissions at the EU level for the same period (excluding land use, land-use change and forestry). The HWP pool sink (-44 Mt CO2 year-1) contributes an additional 1 %. Emissions from D (about 33 Mt CO2 year-1) are more than compensated by the sink in AR (about 43 Mt CO2 year-1 over the period). For FM, the estimates from the CBM were about 8 % lower than the EU GHGI, a value well within the typical uncertainty range of the EU forest sink estimates. For AR and D the match with the EU GHGI was nearly perfect (difference <±2 % in the period 2008-2012). Our analysis on harvest and natural disturbances shows that: (i) the impact of harvest is much greater than natural disturbances but, because of salvage logging (often very relevant), the impact of natural disturbances is often not easily distinguishable from the impact of harvest, and (ii) the impact of storms on the biomass C stock is 5-10 times greater than fires, but while storms cause only indirect emissions (i.e., a transfer of C from living biomass to dead organic matter), fires cause both direct and indirect emissions. CONCLUSIONS:This study presents the application of a consistent methodological approach, based on an inventory-based model, adapted to the forest management conditions of EU countries. The approach captures, with satisfactory detail, the C sink reported in the EU GHGI and the country-specific variability due to harvest, natural disturbances and land-use changes. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive study of its kind at EU level, i.e., including all the forest pools, HWP and natural disturbances, and a comparison with the EU GHGI. The results provide the basis for possible future policy-relevant applications of this model, e.g., as a tool to support GHGIs (e.g., on accounting for natural disturbances) and to verify the EU GHGI, and for the simulation of specific scenarios at EU level.

Dataset Information

Electrokinetic Analysis of Energy Harvest from Natural Salt Gradients in Nanochannels.

Publications

Electrokinetic Analysis of Energy Harvest from Natural Salt Gradients in Nanochannels.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets