Efficient access to clean and renewable energy is a top global challenge in the 21st century. Membrane technology holds great potential to harvest clean energy fromuntapped or underutilized energy sources. The objective of this research is to design advanced membranes by using nanomaterials and/or polymeric materials for severalemerging membrane-based technologies that can harvest clean and renewable energy. A new type of nanocomposite cation exchange membrane (CEM) was synthesized by using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenyleneoxide) (SPPO) to generate clean energy from salinity gradient by using reverse electrodialysis. A freestanding graphene oxide membrane (GOM) was synthesized for pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) and osmotic heat engine to recover salinity gradient power (SGP) and low-grade waste heat, respectively. The newly designed membranes in this study showed enhanced power generation in those systems. In addition, the origin of ion transport property enhancement for nanocomposite ion exchange membranes (IEMs) was explored. The study suggests that the interaction among the nanomaterials and the polymeric materials can change the microstructure of the membrane, thus making the ion transport more efficient. The fundamental study of the nanocomposite IEMs has yielded significant findings that enhance our mechanistic understanding of the type of membranes. The development of a new generation of membranes can serve to inform the energy potential of the emerging membrane-based technologies. The implications of the dissertation are potentially far-reaching and are anticipated to shape the discussion on membrane-based technology for renewable energy production.
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Nano-structured membranes for clean energy harvesting from salinity gradient and low-grade waste heat
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