Ian Wark Research Institute
ARC Special Research Centre
ARC Special Research Centre
Research Area: Physics, nanofluidics, separation and membrane science and nanotube membranes
Degree: Honours
Supervisor: Dr Mihail Popescu
Description: Nanofluidics is often defined as the study and
application of fluid flow in and around nanosized objects. There are
many research disciplines related to nanofluidics and application of
nanofluidics in separation and membrane science is one of a particularly
growing research area. Separation using membranes is currently seen as
one of the most promising and cost effective separation strategies.
However advances are needed in the development of new membranes and
separation approaches using novel and more effective nanoporous
materials. Intensive research over past years is directed toward the
exploring different nanoporous materials for membrane applications.
Among them nanotube (nanochannel) membranes which consist of ordered
arrays of vertically aligned cylindrical channels with sizes of few to
tens nm are a particularly promising. In comparison with other porous
membranes, the advantages of nanotube membranes are their low
fabrication cost, the ability to control channel dimensions (diameter,
length), the flexibility in using different materials (gold, silica,
carbon), the ability to use a wide range of surface modifications and
functionalisations, and the flexibility in applying a variety of
selectivity approaches. If these membranes are to be used for real-world
practical separations, strategies to increase their low transport rate
and improve their selectivity need to be further developed.
The aim of the project is to theoretically address, in close connection
with the experimental work, the transport properties of nanotube
membranes with a view on optimizing their transport and selectivity
properties. Specifically, this research proposed to study the influence
of the size and the shape (eg., conical and asymmetrically modulated) of
the engineered nanotube membranes on the transport properties.
The student is expected to combine theoretical modeling with numerical
methods and/or numerical simulations, thus a background in physics,
engineering or applied mathematics is required, and there will be
opportunities for collaboration with other research groups at The Wark.
References
1. K.B. Jirage, J.C. Hulteen, C.R. Martin, Nanotube-Based
Molecular-Filtration
Membranes, Science 278, 655-658 (1997).
2. K. B. Jirage, C.R. Martin, Trends Biotechnol. 17, 197 (1999).
3. C. Kettner, P. Reimann, P. Hanggi, F. Muller, Phys. Rev. E. 61, 312
(2000).
