Solar energy is a clean, pollution-free green energy, and efficient use of solar energy has always been the goal pursued by scientists around the world. So, can the photoelectric conversion process be eliminated and the solar energy can be directly converted into stable and continuous mechanical energy? Chinese scientists gave the answer.
Recently, a cooperative team such as Nankai University developed a self-ocular "solar artificial muscle driver" based on porous films, and explored the application as an engine, turning this imagination into reality, opening up a new path for humans to efficiently utilize solar energy. The paper introducing this research work was published in internationally renowned academic journal "Nature Communications" (Nature Communications).
This self-oscillating artificial muscle driver based on porous flexible polypropylene/carbon black film was designed by the cooperative team of Professor Liu Zunfeng, Professor Chen Yongsheng, and Associate Professor Zhou Xiang of . Based on this principle breakthrough, they developed the " solar artificial muscle engine ".
The first author of the paper is Dr. Li Jingjing. Professor Liu Zunfeng, Professor Chen Yongsheng of Nankai University, and Associate Professor Zhou Xiang of China Pharmaceutical University are the corresponding authors of the paper . This research work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Key R&D Plan, Tianjin Key Fund and so on.
driver is a hardware that produces mechanical deformation under the stimulation of the external environment and converts various environmental energy such as light energy, thermal energy, chemical energy into mechanical energy, thereby generating driving force. It is also an indispensable core component in application scenarios such as microelectromechanical systems and optical engines. Development of a software driver that spontaneously and continuously realizes energy conversion is one of the key difficulties in this field.
"Self-oscillation is an important feature of biological organisms, such as heart beating, cell circulation, etc., which provides direction for designing continuous motion software robot and autonomous intelligent devices." Professor Liu Zunfeng introduced that a scientific research team has successfully built a light-responsive self-oscillation driver. However, has self-oscillation motion under stimulation of scattered light such as sunlight and is used for mechanical work has never been realized.
Researchers found that evaporation of solvent in polymer films will cause volume shrinkage, and irradiating light on one side of the film will accelerate the evaporation of solvent inside the film, causing anisotropic volume shrinkage, resulting in bending toward light. "Experiments have shown that the introduction of porous structure in into the film can effectively promote the mass transfer of solvent molecules, resulting in faster bending speed and greater bending amplitude of thin film materials. Therefore, we believe that the light-induced solvent evaporation of based on porous films may be a good candidate for achieving self-oscillation drive ." Professor Liu Zunfeng said.
Based on the above research, a joint research team finally designed and developed this self-oscillation driving film based on sunlight. It mainly realizes vibration through the alternating volume reduction on both sides of the polypropylene / carbon black polymer film caused by photothermal-derived solvent evaporation, and the anisotropic solvent evaporation and rapid gradient diffusion in the polymer film maintain oscillation and bending drive under the irradiation of divergent light.
This work realizes the self-ocular driving of divergent light for the first time, including sunlight, infrared light and simulated sunlight, and also realizes the self-ocular movement at different divergent light irradiation angles. This light-responsive self-ocular driver has excellent oscillation performance of (the power density can be achieved under infrared light is 30.9×10-5 J/g, and the power density is 15.4×10-5 W/g), the excellent load capacity of (an object that can be loaded 4 times its own weight) and has a high energy conversion efficiency of (0.9%), and maintains continuous oscillation and motion without stopping while the solvent is constantly supplied.
"This work provides a new design strategy for 'solar engines', which will help the research and development of self-drive equipment, and will promote interdisciplinary intersections in other fields, and help the rapid development of smart devices such as smart materials and flexible devices." Professor Chen Yongsheng said.
Liu Zunfeng, professor at the Institute of Polymer Chemistry, School of Chemistry.Research areas include: bionic intelligent polymer materials, including high-strength artificial spider silk , artificial muscles, flexible electrons, flexible refrigeration, etc.
Chen Yongsheng, professor of the Institute of Polymer Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Nankai University. He has been engaged in related research on organic polymers and carbon nanomaterials for a long time, and has made important contributions in the field of green energy conversion and storage.
Solar energy sources are wide and clean and harmless. As a relatively mature industry in the new energy industry, the solar energy industry is constantly providing support for the realization of the "dual carbon" goal. In the future, Nankai people will continue to uphold the school motto of "fairness and ability, changing with each passing day", practice hard and explore the frontier of science, touch the pulse of China's development in knowledge and actions, seek real knowledge and solve major problems.
For more exciting information, please follow the headline account of "Nankai University Undergraduate Admissions"
The material of this article comes from: Nankai University News Network, Nature Communications, Nankai University School of Chemistry official website, Xinhuanet
Research areas include: bionic intelligent polymer materials, including high-strength artificial spider silk , artificial muscles, flexible electrons, flexible refrigeration, etc.
Chen Yongsheng, professor of the Institute of Polymer Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Nankai University. He has been engaged in related research on organic polymers and carbon nanomaterials for a long time, and has made important contributions in the field of green energy conversion and storage.
Solar energy sources are wide and clean and harmless. As a relatively mature industry in the new energy industry, the solar energy industry is constantly providing support for the realization of the "dual carbon" goal. In the future, Nankai people will continue to uphold the school motto of "fairness and ability, changing with each passing day", practice hard and explore the frontier of science, touch the pulse of China's development in knowledge and actions, seek real knowledge and solve major problems.
For more exciting information, please follow the headline account of "Nankai University Undergraduate Admissions"
The material of this article comes from: Nankai University News Network, Nature Communications, Nankai University School of Chemistry official website, Xinhuanet
