System and method for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12545604-B2
Application number	US-202117486247-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2021
Priority date	Oct 20, 2020
Publication date	Feb 10, 2026
Grant date	Feb 10, 2026

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a system and a method for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation. In the system, a first reservoir is provided with a first electrode immersed in seawater; a second reservoir is connected to the first reservoir via a cation selective nanofilm; a third reservoir is provided with a second electrode immersed in seawater, and the third reservoir is connected to the second reservoir via an anion selective nanofilm; and an adjustable sun-visor shields the cation selective nanofilm to form a first preset part of solar illumination and shields the anion selective nanofilm to form a second preset part of the solar illumination. Therefore, the cation selective nanofilm and the anion selective nanofilm are each under an asymmetric illumination to generate a temperature gradient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation, comprising:
a plurality of reservoirs including at least,
a first reservoir internally provided with a first electrode immersed in seawater,
a second reservoir connected to the first reservoir via a cation selective nanofilm, wherein the cation selective nanofilm is provided with a first light-transmitting sealing layer, and
a third reservoir internally provided with a second electrode immersed in seawater, wherein the third reservoir is connected to the second reservoir via an anion selective nanofilm, the anion selective nanofilm is provided with a second light-transmitting sealing layer, and the first electrode and the second electrode are connected through a signal collector that collects current signals; and
an adjustable sun-visor for shielding the cation selective nanofilm to form a first preset part of solar illumination and shielding the anion selective nanofilm to form a second preset part of the solar illumination, wherein the cation selective nanofilm and the anion selective nanofilm are each under an asymmetric illumination to generate a temperature gradient.

2 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of reservoirs is an odd number of the reservoirs, and the cation selective nanofilm and the anion selective nanofilm are alternately arranged between the adjacent reservoirs among the odd number of reservoirs.

3 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein the cation selective nanofilm and/or the anion selective nanofilm generate the temperature gradient to cause a Gibbs free energy difference that drives a directional ion transportation to generate an ion diffusion current signal among the current signals.

4 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein the cation selective nanofilm comprises a nano cation channel communicating with the first reservoir and the second reservoir, and the anion selective nanofilm comprises a nano anion channel communicating with the second reservoir and the third reservoir.

5 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein the cation selective nanofilm and/or the anion selective nanofilm comprise a two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm with a photothermal effect.

6 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 5 , wherein the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm has a thickness of 5-15 μm, and a thickness of each layer of the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm does film not exceed 10 nm to reduce resistance of the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm and improve ion conductivity; and
the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm has an interlayer spacing of 1-2 nm.

7 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein each of the first light-transmitting sealing layer and the second light-transmitting sealing layer is made of highly light-transmitting polydimethylsiloxane and has a thickness of 10-100 μm to ensure optical performance and reduce optical loss.

8 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein the adjustable sun-visor is made of a heat-insulating material of any one selected from the group consisting of a polystyrene foam, a polyurethane foam and a glass fiber.

9 . The system for solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation according to claim 1 , wherein the first preset part is 0-50% an area of the cation selective nanofilm, and the second preset part is 0-50% an area of the anion selective nanofilm.

10 . A method of solar-driven photothermal seawater desalination and ion electroosmosis power generation using the system according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
by the adjustable sun-visor,
shielding the cation selective nanofilm to form the first preset part of the solar illumination and shielding the anion selective nanofilm to form the second preset part of the solar illumination, such that the cation selective nanofilm and the anion selective nanofilm are each under an asymmetric illumination to generate the temperature gradient,
the temperature gradient generated by a photothermal effect causing a Gibbs free energy difference to drive substance diffusion; diffusion, such that cations and anions in the second reservoir, driven by the Gibbs free energy difference, directionally migrate to the first reservoir and the third reservoir on both sides through the cation selective nanofilm and the anion selective nanofilm, respectively, and an ion diffusion current signal among the current signals is generatable; and
collecting the current signals until the ion diffusion current signal indicates a change in direction, and collecting liquid in the second reservoir to obtain desalinated solution.

11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the plurality of reservoirs is an odd number of reservoirs, and the cation selective nanofilm and the anion selective nanofilm are alternately arranged between adjacent reservoirs among the odd number of reservoirs.

12 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the cation selective nanofilm and/or the anion selective nanofilm generate the temperature gradient to cause a Gibbs free energy difference that drives a directional ion transportation to generate an ion current.

13 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the cation selective nanofilm comprises a nano cation channel communicating with the first reservoir and the second reservoir, and the anion selective nanofilm comprises a nano anion channel communicating with the second reservoir and the third reservoir.

14 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the cation selective nanofilm and/or the anion selective nanofilm comprise a two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm with a photothermal effect.

15 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm has a thickness of 5-15 μm, and a thickness of each layer of the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm does not exceed 10 nm to reduce resistance of the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm and improve ion conductivity; and
the two-dimensional multilayer nanofilm has an interlayer spacing of 1-2 nm.

16 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein each of the first light-transmitting sealing layer and the second light-transmitting sealing layer is made of highly light-transmitting polydimethylsiloxane and has a thickness of 10-100 μm to ensure optical performance and reduce optical loss.

17 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the adjustable sun-visor is made of a heat-insulating material of any one selected from the group consisting of a polystyrene foam, a polyurethane foam and a glass fiber.

18 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the first preset part is 0-50% an area of the cation selective nanofilm, and the second preset part is 0-50% an area of the anion selective nanofilm.

Assignees

• Univ Xi An Jiaotong

Inventors

• Qu Zhiguo
• Liu Qian
• Zhang Jianfei
• Ren Qinlong

Classifications

• C02F2201/009

  Apparatus with independent power supply, e.g. solar cells, windpower or fuel cells · CPC title

• C02F2103/08

  Seawater, e.g. for desalination · CPC title

• C02F1/447

  by membrane distillation (distillation and evaporation without the use of membranes C02F1/04) · CPC title

• B01D61/427

  Electro-osmosis · CPC title

• B01D2313/367

  Renewable energy sources, e.g. wind or solar sources · CPC title