School of Physics and Electronic Science, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410114, China.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410114, China.
Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 6;10(1):16573. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73732-7.
How to convert heat energy into other forms of usable energy more efficiently is always crucial for our human society. In traditional heat engines, such as the steam engine and the internal combustion engine, high-grade heat energy can be easily converted into mechanical energy, while a large amount of low-grade heat energy is usually wasted owing to its disadvantage in the temperature level. In this work, for the first time, the generation of mechanical energy from both high- and low-temperature steam is implemented by a hydrophilic polymer membrane. When exposed to water vapor with a temperature ranging from 50 to 100 °C, the membrane repeats rolling from one side to another. In nature, this continuously rolling of membrane is powered by the steam, like a miniaturized "steam engine". The differential concentration of water vapor (steam) on the two sides of the membrane generates the asymmetric swelling, the curve, and the rolling of the membrane. In particular, results suggest that this membrane based "steam engine" can be powered by the steam with a relatively very low temperature of 50 °C, which indicates a new approach to make use of both the high- and low-temperature heat energy.
如何更有效地将热能转化为其他形式的可用能源，一直是我们人类社会的关键。在传统的热机中，如蒸汽机和内燃机，可以很容易地将高级热能转化为机械能，而大量的低级热能由于其在温度水平上的劣势通常会被浪费掉。在这项工作中，首次通过亲水聚合物膜实现了从高温和低温蒸汽中产生机械能。当暴露于温度在 50 到 100°C 之间的水蒸气时，该膜会从一侧重复滚动到另一侧。在自然界中，这种膜的连续滚动是由蒸汽驱动的，就像一个微型的“蒸汽机”。膜两侧水蒸气（蒸汽）的浓度差产生膜的不对称膨胀、曲线和滚动。特别是，研究结果表明，这种基于膜的“蒸汽机”可以由相对非常低的 50°C 的蒸汽驱动，这为利用高温和低温热能提供了一种新方法。
