NIRT - Collaborative Research: Experimental and Computational Investigations of Fluid Interactions/Transport in Nanodomains and Around Nanoparticles

这笔赠款是根据纳米科学与工程计划（NSF 01-157，NIRT 类别）提供的，旨在满足人们对开发涉及纳米级流体的制造工艺和系统日益增长的兴趣。 还有持续的证据表明，纳米尺度上发生的流体现象与宏观行为不同。 例如，一些疏水通道将允许液态水存在，而只有稍窄的通道将仅允许水蒸气存在。 当评估水以外的流体时，预计会出现类似的现象。 拟议的实验、理论和计算研究将集中于纳米通道中水、醇、胺和其他有趣的有机化合物的限制和传输。我们将研究长度范围从 1 nm 到 1000 nm、直径或宽度从 0.1 nm 到 15 nm（甚至更大）的矩形和圆柱形几何形状。 考虑到无定形和结晶无机材料以及聚合物材料，表面材料将涵盖从疏水性到亲水性的范围。 此外，还将评估流体通过纳米通道的传输速率。 预计流体流动特性和传输速率将比在宏观通道中观察到的更大程度地受到流体表面相互作用的控制。 WPI 的研究将得到新泽西理工学院 (NJIT) NIRT 小组对传统流化床、旋转流化床和循环流化床中纳米颗粒流动行为的研究的补充。纳米流体系统和要考虑的流体的通用几何形状代表了重要的制造系统和工艺。 该研究成果对纳米流变学、纳米润滑、纳米表面特性控制、纳米尺度建模和模拟、芯片实验室技术和其他纳米流体装置具有重要意义。 涉及通过膜和通道进行纳米流体传输的生物系统和环境过程也将从预期结果中受益。 该研究将由 WPI 的 PI 和研究生组成的跨学科团队与 NJIT 的 NIRT 小组合作进行。 此外，我们与台湾、德国和加拿大的研究人员进行了合作，这将有利于这项工作。这项调查还具有很强的教育成分，并将利用 WPI 基于项目的教育系统，该系统要求每个本科生进行一个技术团队项目（称为专业资格项目，或 MQP）和一个涉及社会/技术互动的团队项目（称为互动资格项目，或 IQP）。 每个 MQP 或 IQP 相当于三门课程的工作量。 本科生教育与研究的整合将通过 MQP 来实现，该 MQP 由来自三位 PI 所在的三个院系的本科生团队进行。 此外，进行 IQP 的本科生团队将研究纳米科学和纳米技术的社会影响。 这些本科项目将为年轻科学家和工程师提供与跨学科研究团队互动的新兴技术教育手段。

This grant is made under the Nanoscale Sciences and Engineering initiative, NSF 01-157, category NIRT, to address the growing interest in developing manufacturing processes and systems that involve fluids at the nanoscale. There also is continuing evidence that fluid phenomena that occur at the nanoscale are unlike macroscopic behavior. For example, some hydrophobic channels will permit liquid water to exist, while only slightly narrower channels will only permit water vapor to exist. Similar phenomena are expected to manifest when evaluating fluids other than water. The proposed experimental, theoretical and computational investigations will focus on the confinement and transport of water, alcohols, amines, and other interesting organic compounds in nanochannels. We will investigate both rectangular and cylindrical geometries with length scales from 1 nm to 1000 nm, and diameters, or widths, from 0.1 nm to 15 nm (or even larger). Surface materials will span the regime from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, considering amorphous and crystalline inorganic materials, and polymeric materials. Additionally, transport rates of fluids through nanochannels will be evaluated. It is anticipated that fluid flow properties and transport rates will be governed by fluid-surface interactions to a far greater extent than observed in macroscopic channels. The investigations at WPI will be complemented by research on flow behavior of nanoparticles in conventional, rotating and circulating fluidized beds performed by the NIRT group at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The generic geometry of the nanofluidic system and fluids to be considered are representative of important manufacturing systems and processes. The outcomes of the research have significance to nano-rheology, nano-lubrication, control of nanosurface properties, modeling and simulation at the nanoscale, lab-on-a-chip technologies, and other nanofluidic devices. Biosystems and environmental processes that involve nanofluidic transport through membranes and channels will also benefit from the expected outcomes. The research will be performed by an interdisciplinary team of PIs and graduate students at WPI that will collaborate with the NIRT group at NJIT. Additionally, we have collaborations with researchers in Taiwan, Germany, and Canada that will be of benefit to this effort. This investigation also has a strong educational component and will take advantage of WPI's project-based educational system that requires each undergraduate to conduct a technical team-project (called the Major Qualifying Project, or MQP) and a team-project involving Society/Technology interactions (called the Interactive Qualifying Project, or IQP). Each MQP or IQP is equivalent to a three-course workload. The integration of undergraduate education and research will be pursued with MQPs to be conducted by teams of undergraduates from the three departments where the three PIs reside. In addition, the societal impacts of nanosciences and nanotechnologies will be pursued by a team of undergraduates conducting IQPs. These undergraduate projects will provide means for educating young scientists and engineers in new emerging technologies in interaction with an interdisciplinary research team.