Unraveling the Anomalous Surface-Charge-Dependent Osmotic Power Using a Single Funnel-Shaped Nanochannel

Nanofluidic osmotic power, which converts a difference in salinity between brine and fresh water into electricity with nanoscale channels, has received more and more attention in recent years. It is long believed that to gain high-performance osmotic power, highly charged channel materials should be exploited so as to enhance the ion selectivity. In this paper, we report counterintuitive surface-charge-density-dependent osmotic power in a single funnel-shaped nanochannel (FSN), violating the previous viewpoint. For the highly charged nanochannel, the performance of osmotic power decreases with a further increase in its surface charge density. With increasing pH (surface charge density), the FSN enables a local maximum power density as high as ∼3.5 kW/m2 in a 500 mM/1 mM KCl gradient. This observation is strongly supported by our rigorous model where the equilibrium chemical reaction between functional carboxylate ion groups on the channel wall and protons is taken into account. The modeling reveals that for a highly charged nanochannel, a significant increase in the surface charge density amplifies the ion concentration polarization effect, thus weakening the effective salinity ratio across the channel and undermining the osmotic power generated.