A general strategy to simulate osmotic energy conversion in multi-pore nanofluidic systems

As a type of clean energy resource, salinity gradient power between seawater and river water is important to satisfy the ever-growing energy demand on earth. In the recent years, the use of reverse electrodialysis in biomimetic nanofluidic systems has become a promising way for large-scale and highefficiency harvesting of the salinity gradient power and surpasses the conventional polymeric ionexchange membrane-based process. With regard to practical applications, significant efforts have been made towards the design and fabrication of high-performance and economically viable materials and devices. However, while extrapolating from single nanopores to multi-pore membrane materials, the commonly used linear amplification method causes severe deviation from the actual experimental value obtained on nanoporous membranes, particularly at a high pore density. An appropriate simulation method is therefore highly demanded and a great challenge. Herein, we present a general strategy for multi-pore nanofluidic systems by taking the influence of neighbouring nanopores into consideration. We have found that the fourth nearest-neighbor approximation is sufficiently precise for simulation in nanoporous systems. The simulation data are in good agreement with the experimental results. The simulation method provides insights for understanding the pore-pore interaction in porous nanofluidic systems and for the design of high-performance devices.