Osmotic Engine: Translating Osmotic Pressure into Macroscopic Mechanical Force via Poly(Acrylic Acid) Based Hydrogels.

ABSTRACT: Poly(acrylic acid)-based hydrogels can swell up to 100-1000 times their own weight in desalinated water due to osmotic forces. As the swelling is about a factor of 2-12 lower in seawater-like saline solutions (4.3 wt% NaCl) than in deionized water, cyclic swelling, and shrinking can potentially be used to move a piston in an osmotic motor. Consequently, chemical energy is translated into mechanical energy. This conversion is driven by differences in chemical potential and by changes in entropy. This is special, as most thermodynamic engines rely instead on the conversion of heat into mechanical energy. To optimize the efficiency of this process, the degree of neutralization, the degree of crosslinking, and the particle size of the hydrogels are varied. Additionally, different osmotic engin

SUBMITTER: Arens L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5604390 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature