The Discovery of Calcite Intrinsic Wettability by the First-Ever Optical Illumination Inside Dark Fluid using IRIDW Apparatus

Wettability is one of the critical physical-chemical properties controlling multiphase flow in porous media. Therefore, it is vital to identify the wettability for each rock type when building 3D geological models for predicting the fluid flow behavior using a numerical simulator. Wettability-unique relative permeability curves are part of each flow simulator's rock type for proper simulation predictions. The reference approach for wettability determination is contact angle measurement. The literature recoded the wettability of contact angle measurement inside transparent fluid like water and decane. However, we need to visualize and measure the water-rock contact angle inside dark fluid like the hydrocarbon. We propose visualizing and measuring the wettability contact angle for rock-water inside dark hydrocarbon fluid. We use the Illumination through Rock Inside Dark fluid for Wettability measurement (IRIDW) apparatus

Dynamic hyperconjugation induced bond-angle rotation isomerization mechanism and anionic conformational rigidity-dependent melting points of ionic liquids

The pyramidal inversion of trisubstituted heteroatoms is well-recognized. However, the stereochemistry of bicoordinated heteroatoms is poorly developed and few examples assumedly isomerize by double-torsion motion or bond-angle inversion. Here, by using ab initio molecular dynamics combined with metadynamics simulation, we reveal an unexpected competing isomerization mechanism, namely dynamic π → σ* negative hyperconjugation induced coupled rotation of bond and bond angle leads to helix inversion in bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonamide (TFSI-), making TFSI- follow four distinct trans-cis isomerization pathways with diverse energy barriers (12–52 kJ mol-1) which are significantly higher than 3.6 kJ mol-1 of sole pathway estimated by conventional static calculations. Our quantitative simulations and experiments results confirm the positive correlation between overall stability of cis-TFSI- with polarity of countercations. The melting points (Tm) of TFSI--based ionic liquids (ILs) linearly rise with the conformational rigidity of TFSI- in the ion pair state, offering a new fundamental perspective on the origin of low Tm of ILs

Novel Receiver-Enhanced Solar Vapor Generation: Review and Perspectives

Efficient solar vapor/steam generation is important for various applications ranging from power generation, cooling, desalination systems to compact and portable devices like drinking water purification and sterilization units. However, conventional solar steam generation techniques usually rely on costly and cumbersome optical concentration systems and have relatively low efficiency due to bulk heating of the entire liquid volume. Recently, by incorporating novel light harvesting receivers, a new class of solar steam generation systems has emerged with high vapor generation efficiency. They are categorized in two research streams: volumetric and floating solar receivers. In this paper, we review the basic principles of these solar receivers, the mechanism involving from light absorption to the vapor generation, and the associated challenges. We also highlight the two routes to produce high temperature steam using optical and thermal concentration. Finally, we propose a scalable approach to efficiently harvest solar energy using a semi-spectrally selective absorber with near-perfect visible light absorption and low thermal emittance. Our proposed approach represents a new development in thermally concentrated solar distillation systems, which is also cost-effective and easy to fabricate for rapid industrial deployment

Sustainable biomimetic solar distillation with edge crystallization for passive salt collection and zero brine discharge

Abstract The urgency of addressing water scarcity and exponential population rise has necessitated the use of sustainable desalination for clean water production, while conventional thermal desalination processes consume fossil fuel with brine rejection. As a promising solution to sustainable solar thermal distillation, we report a scalable mangrove-mimicked device for direct solar vapor generation and passive salt collection without brine discharge. Capillarity-driven salty water supply and continuous vapor generation are ensured by anti-corrosion porous wicking stem and multi-layer leaves, which are made of low-cost superhydrophilic nanostructured titanium meshes. Precipitated salt at the leaf edge forms porous patch during daytime evaporation and get peeled by gravity during night when saline water rewets the leaves, and these salt patches can enhance vaporization by 1.6 times as indicated by our findings. The proposed solar vapor generator achieves a stable photothermal efficiency around 94% under one sun when treating synthetic seawater with a salinity of 3.5 wt.%. Under outdoor conditions, it can produce 2.2 L m−2 of freshwater per day from real seawater, which is sufficient for individual drinking needs. This kind of biomimetic solar distillation devices have demonstrated great capability in clean water production and passive salt collection to tackle global water and environmental challenges

Hybrid graphene metasurface for near-infrared absorbers

We experimentally demonstrated an amorphous graphene-based metasurface yielding near-infrared super absorber characteristic. The structure is obtained by alternatively combining magnetron-sputtering deposition and graphene transfer coating fabrication techniques. The thickness constraint of the physical vapor–deposited amorphous metallic layer is unlocked and as a result, the as-fabricated graphene-based metasurface absorber achieves near-perfect absorption in the near-infrared region with an ultra-broad spectral bandwidth of 3.0 µm. Our experimental characterization and theoretical analysis further point out that the strong light-matter interaction observed is caused by localized surface plasmon resonance of the metal film’s particle-like surface morphology. In addition to the enhanced light absorption characteristics, such an amorphous metasurface can be used for surface-enhanced Raman scattering applications. Meanwhile, the proposed graphene-based metasurface relies solely on CMOS-compatible, low cost and large-area processing, which can be flexibly scaled up for mass production

Direct Prediction of Calcite Surface Wettability with First-Principles Quantum Simulation

Prediction of intrinsic surface wettability from first-principles offers great opportunities in probing new physics of natural phenomena and enhancing energy production or transport efficiency. We propose a general quantum mechanical approach to predict the macroscopic wettability of any solid crystal surfaces for different liquids directly through atomic-level density functional simulation. As a benchmark, the wetting characteristics of calcite crystal (10.4) under different types of fluids (water, hexane, and mercury), including either contact angle or spreading coefficient, are predicted and further validated with experimental measurements. A unique feature of our approach lies in its capability of capturing the interactions among various polar fluid molecules and solid surface ions, particularly their charge density difference distributions. Moreover, this approach provides insightful and quantitative predictions of complicated surface wettability alteration problems and wetting behaviors of liquid/liquid/solid triphase systems