Desalination Fuel Cells with High Thermodynamic Energy Efficiency.

Sustainably-produced hydrogen is currently intensively investigated as an energy carrier to replace fossil fuels. We here characterize an emerging electrochemical cell termed a desalination fuel cell (DFC) that can continuously generate electricity and desalinate water while using hydrogen and oxygen gases as inputs. We investigated two operational modes, a near-neutral pH operation with H, O, and feedwater inputs (H|O), and a pH-gradient mode with H, O, feedwater, acid, and base inputs (H + B|O + A).

Periodic energy conversion in an electric-double-layer capacitor.

Electrostatic conversion devices operate through periodic modulation of capacitance. Such devices have a wide range of configurations, involving either changes in permittivity, electrode-plate spacing or wetting area. The presented study examines, theoretically, a potential configuration of an electric-double-layer capacitor (EDLC)-based transducer, as it converts concentration and temperature oscillations into an electric alternating current.