Diffusio-osmotic transport in nanochannels

TL;DR

This chapter explores diffusio-osmotic transport in nanochannels, highlighting its entropic origins, unique features, and potential applications in energy conversion and nanofluidic systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that diffusio-osmosis extends entropically driven transport to non-permeable channels, providing new insights into nanochannel transport mechanisms and energy harvesting.

Findings

Diffusio-osmosis arises from entropic forces at solid-liquid interfaces.

Nanochannels enable diffusio-osmosis without semi-permeability.

Potential for osmotic energy conversion using nanopores and membranes.

Abstract

In this chapter, I will enter into the roots of entropically-driven transport with a focus on diffusio-osmotic transport in nanochannels. Diffusio-osmosis is a subtle surface transport, originating in entropic driving forces occuring within the diffuse layers at solid boundaries. Specifying diffusio-osmosis to nanochannels may first look like a marginal refinement, yet it reveals that osmotic drivings can arise in channels and membranes without the prerequisite of semi-permeability, so that diffusio-osmosis extends the domain of existence of entropically driven transport. Osmosis and diffusio-osmosis are two faces of the same phenomenon, naturally embedded in an Onsager framework and quantified by local and global force balances. This perspective clarifies why nanochannels are privileged arenas where diffusio-osmosis and its consequence do flourish. Throughout the chapter, I discuss a set of conceptually relevant examples to show how diffusio-osmosis "pops up" in various situations: as enhanced diffusion, mechano-sensitivity, rectified osmotic flows and, ultimately, as a lever for osmotic energy conversion from single nanopores to membrane modules approaching industrial reality.