Light-driven directional ion transport for enhanced osmotic energy harvesting

• 作者: Kai Xiao Paolo Giusto Fengxiang Chen Ruotian Chen Tobias Heil Shaowen Cao Lu Chen Fengtao Fan Lei Jiang
• 来源期刊: 国家科学评论（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（8）
• 所属期刊栏目: RESEARCH ARTICLES
• 页码范围: 173-180
• 页数: 8页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Light-driven ion(proton)transport is a crucial process both for photosynthesis of green plants and solar energy harvesting of some archaea.Here,we describe use of a TiO2/C3N4 semiconductor heterojunction nanotube membrane to realize similar light-driven directional ion transport performance to that of biological systems.This heterojunction system can be fabricated by two simple deposition steps.Under unilateral illumination,the TiO2/C3N4 heterojunction nanotube membrane can generate a photocurrent of about 9 μA/cm2,corresponding to a pumping stream of～5500 ions per second per nanotube.By changing the position of TiO2 and C3N4,a reverse equivalent ionic current can also be realized.Directional transport of photogenerated electrons and holes results in a transmembrane potential,which is the basis of the light-driven ion transport phenomenon.As a proof of concept,we also show that this system can be used for enhanced osmotic energy generation.The artificial light-driven ion transport system proposed here offers a further step forward on the roadmap for development of ionic photoelectric conversion and integration into other applications,for example water desalination.