A low-cost, high-efficiency and high-output-power nanofluidic energy harvester

Nanofluidics is attracting great attention lately as a novel energy harvesting strategy. This study presents nanoparticle crystal, which equivalently forms a network of nanochannels, as the functional nanofluidics structure for energy harvesting from concentration gradient by reverse electrodialysis. Ion concentration gradient was applied across a 40×40 μm² micropore containing self-assembled nanoparticle crystal with particle diameter of 100/210/500 nm to harvest energy from the Gibbs free energy. The maximum single-pore output power was 1.17 + 0.09 nW (power density 2.82±0.22 W m^-2), and the maximum efficiency was 42.3 2±1.84% in this work. The present work might be an alternative and promising approach for developing self-powered micro/nanofluidic systems.