Work

Cationic Natural Scallion Membranes for Efficient Osmotic Power Generation

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Natural scallion membranes located on the inner wall leaf sheaths serve as inherent nanofluidic channels for the transport of soluble nutrients and ions during plant growth, thus providing a promising candidate for fabricating low‐cost, sustainable, and high‐performance ion‐selective nanofluidic membranes toward osmotic power generation. In this work, soluble cuticular lipids were first removed from the natural scallion membrane using a methanol/chloroform mixture. Negatively charged phosphate groups were then grafted onto the cellulose backbone through a urea‐assisted phosphorylation reaction. The as‐prepared phosphorylated scallion membrane exhibits a markedly improved cation selectivity and ion permeation flux. When employed for osmotic power generation, the membrane delivers a maximum output power density of 19.79 W/m 2 under a 50‐fold salinity gradient (0.5/0.01 M NaCl), which outperforms most reported biomass‐derived nanofluidic membranes. This work provides a viable and sustainable approach to fabricate high‐performance nanofluidic membranes for osmotic energy conversion using ubiquitous plant membranes in nature.

Source: Small

DOI: 10.1002/smll.75776