Vertically-Oriented Graphene Oxide Membranes for High-Performance Osmotic Energy Conversion

Abstract: Reverse electrodialysis is a promising method to harvest the osmotic energy stored between seawater and freshwater, but it has been a long-standing challenge to fabricate permselective membranes with the power density surpassing the industry benchmark of 5.0 W $m^{-2}$ for half a century. Herein, we report a vertically-oriented graphene oxide membranes (V-GOMs) with the combination of high ion selectivity and ultrafast ion permeation, whose permeation is three orders of magnitude higher than the extensively studied horizontally stacked GOMs (H-GOMs). By mixing artificial seawater and river water, we obtained an unprecedented high output power density of 10.6 W $m^{-2}$, outperforming all existing materials. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal the mechanism of the ultrafast transport in V-GOMs results from the quick entering of ions and the large accessible area as well as the apparent short diffusion paths in V-GOMs. These results will facilitate the practical application of osmotic energy and bring innovative design strategy for various systems involving ultrafast transport, such as filtration and catalysis.