High Efficiency Shear-Driven Nanofluidic System for Energy Conversion/Harvesting

In this work, we propose a shear-driven nanofluidic system for energy harvesting/conversion. The system consists of a nanochannel formed by two parallel walls, where the lower wall is negatively charged, while the upper wall is neutral. The motion of the upper wall caused by a shear force drives the solution in the fluidic system to move, which generates an ionic current due to the migration of excess cations in the system. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the efficiency of the system is affected by the wall charge density, shearing stress, channel height, and binding energy of the walls. The effects of these factors on the efficiency are studied. In particular, it is shown that a high binding energy for the upper wall (e.g., hydrophilic wall) can reduce the flow slip at the upper wall and effectively transfer energy from the wall to the fluid. For the lower wall, a low binding energy, which corresponds to a hydrophobic wall, can reduce the friction at the wall, enhance the flow velocity, and improve the energy conversion efficiency. By varying these parameters, it is found that the maximum energy conversion efficiency of the system reaches 65.8%, which is the highest compared with previous systems. The underlying mechanisms are explained using the slip length at the walls, wall velocity, and charge density profiles. The system proposed in this work provides insights into the design of nanofluidic systems for energy harvesting/conversion.