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和工程倡议，NSF 01-157，NIRT类别提供的，以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。也有持续不断的证据表明，发生在纳米尺度上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的存在，而只有略窄的通道将仅允许水蒸气存在。在评估水以外的流体时，预计也会出现类似的现象。拟议的实验、理论和计算研究将集中在水、醇、胺和其他有趣的有机化合物在纳米通道中的限制和传输。我们将研究长度尺度从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图形。表面材料将跨越从疏水到亲水的范围，考虑到非晶态和晶态无机材料以及聚合物材料。此外，还将评估流体通过纳米通道的传输速率。预计流体的流动特性和传输速率将在更大程度上受流体-表面相互作用的影响，而不是宏观通道中观察到的程度。与WPI的研究相辅相成的是，新泽西理工学院(NJIT)的NIRT小组将对纳米颗粒在常规床、旋转床和循环床中的流动行为进行研究。要考虑的纳米流体系统和流体的一般几何形状代表了重要的制造系统和工艺。研究结果对纳米流变学、纳米润滑、纳米表面性质的控制、纳米尺度的建模和模拟、芯片实验室技术以及其他纳米流体器件具有重要意义。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受益于预期结果。这项研究将由WPI的PI和研究生组成的跨学科团队进行，该团队将与NJIT的NIRT小组合作。此外，我们与台湾、德国和加拿大的研究人员进行了合作，这将有助于这一努力。这项调查还具有强大的教育成分，并将利用WPI的基于项目的教育体系，该体系要求每个本科生进行一个技术团队项目(称为主要资格项目，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。三位督导主任所在的三个部门的本科生小组将进行学士教育和研究的融合，并由三个部门的本科生小组进行。此外，纳米科学和纳米技术的社会影响将由一个进行智商计划的本科生团队进行研究。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新兴技术方面的教育手段。

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.