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Electricity generated by upstream proton diffusion in two-dimensional nanochannels

Nature Nanotechnology volume 19, pages 1316–1322 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The movement of ions along the pressure-driven water flow in narrow channels, known as downstream ionic transport, has been observed since 1859 to induce a streaming potential and has enabled the creation of various hydrovoltaic devices. In contrast, here we demonstrate that proton movement opposing the water flow in two-dimensional nanochannels of MXene/poly(vinyl alcohol) films, termed upstream proton diffusion, can also generate electricity. The infiltrated water into the channel causes the dissociation of protons from functional groups on the channel surface, resulting in a high proton concentration inside the channel that drives the upstream proton diffusion. Combined with the particularly sluggish water diffusion in the channels, a small water droplet of 5 µl can generate a voltage of ~400 mV for over 330 min. Benefiting from the ultrathin and flexible nature of the film, a wearable device is built for collecting energy from human skin sweat.

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Fig. 1: Configuration, characterization and performance of the MPCF device.
Fig. 2: Exclusion of conventional mechanisms.
Fig. 3: Extremely slow water permeation in the MPCF.
Fig. 4: Proton upstream diffusion induces electricity.
Fig. 5: Device integration and applications.

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Data availability

All the data generated and analysed in this study are included in the Article and its Supplementary Information. The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. B. Cho and M. S. Kang at Ajou University for the discussions on the FEM. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project (2019YFA0705403 to L.Q.; 2019YFA0705400 to W.G.), National Natural Science Foundation of China (T2293691 to W.G.; T2293693 to L.Q.; 12150002 to J.Y.; 12322213 and 12172170 to H.Q.; 12172176 and 12311530052 to J.Y.; 52302183 to R.Q.), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2020B0301030002 to L.Q.) and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20220074 to J.Y.; BK20212008 to W.G.; BK20230029 and BK20221476 to H.Q.; BK20230896 to R.Q.). This work was partially supported by the High Performance Computing Platform of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Heyi Xia

    Present address: Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

  2. These authors contributed equally: Heyi Xia, Wanqi Zhou, Xinyue Qu, Wenbo Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenzhen Geim Graphene Center, Institute of Materials Research (IMR), Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Heyi Xia, Xinyue Qu, Wenbo Wang, Xin Wu, Chuang Yang, Kuang Yu & Ling Qiu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    Wanqi Zhou, Xiao Wang, Ruixi Qiao, Hu Qiu, Jun Yin & Wanlin Guo

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Yongkang Zhang & Yang Ran

  4. Shenzhen Key Lab of Energy Materials for Carbon Neutrality, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Baofu Ding & Hui-Ming Cheng

  5. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (iChEM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People’s Republic of China

    Ling-Yun Hu, Sheng Hu & Jian-Feng Li

  6. Faculty of Materials Science and Energy Engineering, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Hui-Ming Cheng

  7. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Hui-Ming Cheng

Authors
  1. Heyi Xia
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Contributions

W.G., H.Q., J.Y. and L.Q. conceived the study. H.X., X.Q. and W.W. performed the fabrication and characterization. W.Z. and H.Q. designed and performed the simulations to clarify the mechanism. X. Wang., R.Q., Y.Z., X. Wu. and C.Y. participated in the experiment. B.D., L.-Y.H., Y.R., K.Y., S.H., J.-F.L. and H.-M.C. analysed the data and discussed the mechanism. H.X., W.Z., H.Q., J.Y., W.G. and L.Q. co-wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. All authors have given approval to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hu Qiu, Jun Yin, Wanlin Guo or Ling Qiu.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Sung Cho and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1–4 and Figs. 1–22.

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Xia, H., Zhou, W., Qu, X. et al. Electricity generated by upstream proton diffusion in two-dimensional nanochannels. Nat. Nanotechnol. 19, 1316–1322 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01691-5

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