Compact Thermal Actuation by Water and Flexible Hydrophobic Nanopore

Published

April 29, 2021

Author(s)

Miroslaw Chorazewski

Abstract

Efficient and compact energy conversion is at the heart of sustainable development of humanity. In this work it is demonstrated that hydrophobic flexible nanoporous materials can be used for thermal-to-mechanical energy conversion when coupled with water. In particular, a reversible nonhysteretic wetting-drying (contraction-expansion) cycle provoked by periodic temperature fluctuations was realized for water and superhydrophobic nanoporous MOF Cu₂(tebpz) (tebpz = 3,3',5,5'-tetraethyl-4,4'-bipyrazolate). Thermal-to-mechanical conversion efficiency of 30% was directly recorded by high-precision PVT-calorimetry, while operational cycle was confirmed by in operando neutron scattering. The obtained results provide an alternative approach for compact energy conversion exploiting solid-liquid interfacial energy in nanoscopic flexible heterogeneous systems.

Citation

ACS Nano

Volume

15

Issue

5

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Energy storage, diffraction, metal-organic framework

Citation

Chorazewski, M. (2021), Compact Thermal Actuation by Water and Flexible Hydrophobic Nanopore, ACS Nano (Accessed September 9, 2024)