Nano Heat Pump Based on Reverse Thermo-osmosis Effect

J Li and R Long and B Zhang and RG Yang and W Liu and ZC Liu, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS, 11, 9856-9861 (2020).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02475

Heat pumps are widely used in domestic applications, agriculture, and industry. Here, we report a novel heat pump based on the reverse thermo- osmosis (RTO) effect in a nanoporous graphene (NPG) membrane. Through classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, we prove that the heat pump can transport mass and heat efficiently. The heat and mass fluxes are increased linearly with the hydraulic pressure provided. Ultrahigh heat fluxes of 6.2 +/- 1.0 kW/cm(2) and coefficient of performance (COP) of 20.2 are obtained with a temperature increment of 5 K and a working pressure of 80 MPa. It is interesting that water molecules on the NPG membrane can evaporate in a cluster state, and the cluster evaporations reduce the vaporization enthalpy of the processes.

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