Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients
Coupling between solution salinity and the mechanics of charged hydrogels presents an opportunity to harvest osmotic energy in a clean and sustainable way. By applying mechanical pressure to retard the swelling or deswelling of hydrogels in saline solutions, the free energy of mixing is converted in...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AIP Publishing
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138835 |
| _version_ | 1826190075199750144 |
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| author | Zhang, Sui Lin, Shaoting Zhao, Xuanhe Karnik, Rohit |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Zhang, Sui Lin, Shaoting Zhao, Xuanhe Karnik, Rohit |
| author_sort | Zhang, Sui |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Coupling between solution salinity and the mechanics of charged hydrogels presents an opportunity to harvest osmotic energy in a clean and sustainable way. By applying mechanical pressure to retard the swelling or deswelling of hydrogels in saline solutions, the free energy of mixing is converted into mechanical work. This study developed a theoretical framework and experimentally investigated the potential of hydrogels for energy production from salinity gradients. Mathematical modeling revealed the effect of parameters including the charge and elastic modulus of hydrogels, applied pressure, and the solution salinity on energy conversion using different thermodynamic cycles. With proper material design and process control, the thermodynamic efficiency of an ideal process was predicted to exceed 5% with 10 mM and 600 mM NaCl solutions. Experiments with poly (styrene sulfonate) hydrogels verified the theoretically predicted trends and demonstrated more than 10% thermodynamic efficiency for moderate-salinity sources, due to the unique swelling-strengthened mechanical properties of the gels. The study suggests the potential of polyelectrolyte hydrogels in the extraction of energy from low- to moderate-salinity sources and provides a framework for their design. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:34:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/138835 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:34:39Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | AIP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1388352023-04-19T19:19:55Z Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients Zhang, Sui Lin, Shaoting Zhao, Xuanhe Karnik, Rohit Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Coupling between solution salinity and the mechanics of charged hydrogels presents an opportunity to harvest osmotic energy in a clean and sustainable way. By applying mechanical pressure to retard the swelling or deswelling of hydrogels in saline solutions, the free energy of mixing is converted into mechanical work. This study developed a theoretical framework and experimentally investigated the potential of hydrogels for energy production from salinity gradients. Mathematical modeling revealed the effect of parameters including the charge and elastic modulus of hydrogels, applied pressure, and the solution salinity on energy conversion using different thermodynamic cycles. With proper material design and process control, the thermodynamic efficiency of an ideal process was predicted to exceed 5% with 10 mM and 600 mM NaCl solutions. Experiments with poly (styrene sulfonate) hydrogels verified the theoretically predicted trends and demonstrated more than 10% thermodynamic efficiency for moderate-salinity sources, due to the unique swelling-strengthened mechanical properties of the gels. The study suggests the potential of polyelectrolyte hydrogels in the extraction of energy from low- to moderate-salinity sources and provides a framework for their design. 2022-01-05T19:39:40Z 2022-01-05T19:39:40Z 2020 2022-01-05T19:37:14Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138835 Zhang, Sui, Lin, Shaoting, Zhao, Xuanhe and Karnik, Rohit. 2020. "Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients." Journal of Applied Physics, 128 (4). en 10.1063/5.0013357 Journal of Applied Physics Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf AIP Publishing MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Zhang, Sui Lin, Shaoting Zhao, Xuanhe Karnik, Rohit Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| title | Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| title_full | Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| title_fullStr | Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| title_full_unstemmed | Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| title_short | Thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo-mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| title_sort | thermodynamic analysis and material design to enhance chemo mechanical coupling in hydrogels for energy harvesting from salinity gradients |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138835 |
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