| Summary: | Ample studies have shown the use of nanofluidics in the ionic diode and osmotic power generation, but similar ionic devices performed with large-sized mesopores are still poorly understood. In this study, we model and realize the mesoscale ionic diode and osmotic power generator, composed of an asymmetric cone-shaped mesopore with its narrow opening filled with a polyelectrolyte (PE) layer with high space charges. We show that, only when the space charge density of a PE layer is sufficiently large (><inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>1</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mn>6</mn></msup><msup><mrow><mrow><mtext> </mtext><mi mathvariant="normal">C</mi><mo>/</mo><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi></mrow></mrow><mn>3</mn></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>), the considered mesopore system is able to create an asymmetric ionic distributions in the pore and then rectify ionic current. As a result, the output osmotic power performance can be improved when the filled PE carries sufficiently high space charges. For example, the considered PE-filled mesopore system can show an amplification of the osmotic power of up to 35.1-fold, compared to the bare solid-state mesopore. The findings provide necessary information for the development of large-sized ionic diode and osmotic power harvesting device.
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