Flux-inversion in a nanopore
Summary
In this honor's bachelor thesis, we explore a cylindrical pore connected to two reservoirs with different salt conncentrations. This model proves to be usefull for Reverse Electrodialysis appliciations, which generate potential differences out of osmotic pressure differences. We develop an analytical theory that relates the pore-averaged ion-flux, current and fluid flow to a set of driving forces by a linear matrix. We make several new simplifications, most notably the reduction of the K7 integral of Sashidar and Ruckenstein, which simply the matrix expressions. Aside from this we will cast existing literature of the theory in a new perspective. Finally we will also perform numerical calculations on this system of equations, showing that a back-flow of current can occur in the pore when a certain amount of current runs trhough it. we will place the pore pore in the context of a RED-application and we see that it generates electrical power out of chemical potential, with a maximum efficiency of approximately 30%.