Oxidation promoted osmotic energy conversion in black phosphorus membranes
Zhen Zhang, Panpan Zhang, Sheng Yang, Tao Zhang, Markus Löffler, Huanhuan Shi, Martin R. Lohe, Xinliang Feng
Abstract
Significance Engineering two-dimensional (2D) membranes has been an effective approach to boost the harvesting of the “blue” osmotic energy between river water and sea water. Here we show the oxidation of black phosphorus (BP) can be fully utilized for osmotic energy conversion, which stands in contrast to using BP for electronic applications where the ambient stability is a major concern. Through controllable oxidation in water, power output of the BP membrane can be largely promoted by ∼220% to 1.6 W/m 2 . Moreover, construction of a heterostructure membrane with graphene oxide greatly enhances the charge separation efficiency, contributing to improved performance of ∼4.7 W/m 2 that outperforms most of the 2D membranes. This work highlights BP as an attractive material for nanofluidic energy conversion.