The research results of Professor Ying Yibin's team (IBE) were published online in Advanced Science

On January 6, the team of Professor Ying Yibin (IBE) from the School of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University published a research paper Anion-Selective Layered Double Hydroxide Composites-Based Osmotic Energy Conversion for Real- Time Nutrient Solution Detection
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This study reports an anion-selective nanofluidic channel ( ? 1 ) with good stability and energy conversion from salt difference energy to electrical energy

? 1.

In natural organisms, ion channels with asymmetric structures embedded in phospholipid bilayers can efficiently regulate ion transmembrane movement by modulating nano- or molecular-level physicochemical factors and geometric structures
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MacKinnon (2003 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) published an article on potassium ion channels in 1998, in which the molecular mechanism of potassium ion conduction and selective transport was described, laying the foundation for biomimetic nanofluidic channel science

In this study, an anion-selective nanofluidic channel was constructed, in which two-dimensional nanomaterials, namely, positively charged layered double hydroxides (LDHs), endowed the nanofluidic channel with selectivity for anions.

In addition to the experimental investigation, this study also analyzes and summarizes the influence mechanism of the properties of the anion nanofluidic channel on its own energy conversion performance from a theoretical point of view ( 2 ) .
In the study, the channel length, channel diameter and surface charge density were used to characterize the effect of the growth of LDHs on the properties of nanofluidic channels .
The researchers found that the growth of LDHs affects both the ion selectivity and osmotic conductance of the nanofluidic channel, which in turn determine the energy conversion performance of the nanofluidic channel .

? 2.
Mechanism of the effect of LDHs anion-selective nanofluidic channel properties on ion transport

Further, based on the characteristics of nanofluidic channels that convert ion concentration information into electrical signals, this study applies it to real-time monitoring of ion concentration in nutrient solutions in hydroponic production, providing a new idea for agricultural information perception
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The first author of the research paper is Liu Yaqian, a master student in the IBE team of Zhejiang University, and the corresponding author is Professor Ying Yibin
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This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China