From weak to strong non-equilibrium transport of fluids at the nanoscales

在纳米尺度上对液体的限制导致了广泛的新特性，这些特性在各种应用中得到利用，从能量收集，过度海水淡化到石油开采。然而，经典框架不仅不能给出这些尺度下输运性质的基本原理，而且迄今为止对受限液体的非线性状态也几乎没有探索。在这个项目中，我们聚集了一个由实验学家和理论家组成的合作团队，以解决这些具有挑战性的问题。这是基于(i)我们独特的实验，使我们能够从根本上研究单个纳米管中的离子和流体传输，以及（ii）我们在电流体动力学现象的理论和数值模拟方面的最先进的专业知识，从从头算模拟到新的理论分子框架。我们的最终目标是研究强非平衡转运并提出新型的活性膜过程。

The confinement of liquids at the nanoscale leads to a broad spectrum of new properties which are harnessed in a variety of applications, from energy harvesting, over desalination, to oil extraction. However, not only do the classical frameworks fail to give a rationale of the transport properties at these scales, also the non-linear regimes of confined liquids have been barely explored up to now. In this project, we gather a collaborative team of experimentalists and theoreticians in order to tackle these challenging questions. This is based on (i) our unique experiments allowing us to fundamentally investigate ion and fluid transport in individual nanotubes, as well as (ii) our state-of-the-art expertise on the theory and numerical modelling of electrohydrodynamic phenomena, from ab initio simulations to new theoretical molecular frameworks. Our ultimate goal is to investigate strongly out-of-equilibrium transport and propose new types of active membrane processes.