Collaborative Research: Kinetics of Autonomous Catalytic Nanomotors in Confined and Crowded Environments

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The objective of this project is to investigate the transport of autonomous nanomotors driven by chemical reactions in confined and crowded environments by integrating experiment and numerical simulations. Intellectual Merits: The work is built on the PIs recent success in design and fabrication of catalytic nanomotors with translational and rotational motion. By elucidating new issues unique to the transport of autonomous nanomotors in confined spaces and in presence of other particles and motors with different thermal, mechanical, and chemical interactions, the proposed research will break new ground for fundamental studies of particulate transport phenomena and enrich the theories of particulate transport. The proposed work will benefit from the synergistic collaboration between two PIs with complementary expertise in nanomotor fabrication/characterization and multi-physics simulations, and is supported by state-of-the-art computing and experimental facilities. Broader Impacts: The proposed work addresses some of the most pressing issues in understanding the transport of nanomotors in practical applications, and the insights gained here will form the theoretical foundation for engineering smart nanomotor systems for targeted drug delivery and disease treatment, which can potentially transform these fields. The project will include strong and sustained education programs involving both undergraduate students with diverse ethnical backgrounds and regional K-12 students. Undergraduate research experience helps students, many of them minorities, develop a genuine interest in science and engineering through hands-on research activities in STEM disciplines. Outreach efforts will include providing high school students with immersive research experiences and showcasing research in university-level K-12 outreach programs. The interdisciplinary nature of this project, with a unique combination of experiments and simulations, will provide the students involved with a unique exposure to cutting-edge science and engineering.