Nano manufacturing of ultrathin membranes

超越最先进的技术，在这里，我们建议制造出最终很薄的纳米膜，包括埃级的孔/通道，缺陷最小。埃通道在许多自然现象中都有重要意义，如树木的毛细上升、岩石沉积物中的气体凝结、离子通道/泵等。为了模拟自然系统的功能，几个类似大小的人工孔隙/通道正在被合成。这样的孔隙可以用于许多技术，包括过滤、分子分离、海水淡化、DNA测序等等。该项目的主要目标是通过对多孔材料和层状材料进行切片，开发大规模生产坚固的多孔纳米膜的方法。虽然有几种优秀的多孔和层状材料具有埃级通道，但将它们整合到膜中以充分利用其在过滤，离子筛分，发电等应用中的潜力存在几个瓶颈。此外，当这些多孔材料浇铸成膜时，孔隙堵塞、易碎性、通道长度控制和泄漏路径也是主要问题。在这里，我们通过使用一种简单而强大的技术来解决所有这些问题，该技术可以通过切片嵌入树脂基质中的原始材料来制造纳米膜。我们提出了一种强大的、可扩展的技术，用纳米材料制造超薄膜，这对分子分离、渗透、燃料电池、超级电容器等都很有用。这项研究将在曼彻斯特大学和国家石墨烯研究所进行。通过该项目获得的精确纳米制造人员的培训，对许多学术和工业领域具有重要意义，通过支撑物理，材料化学和纳米流体的基本概念，满足对训练有素的具有适当技术知识，技能和专业知识的研究人员不断增长的需求。这种具有凝聚力和创新性的方法将开发出新的工具，用于在膜中精确组装多孔材料。

Going beyond the state-of-the-art, here we propose to make nanomembranes which are ultimately thin, comprising angstrom-scale pores/channels, with minimal defects. Angstrom channels have significance in many natural phenomena such as capillary rise in trees, gas condensation in rock sediments, in ion channels/pumps etc. To mimic the functioning of natural systems, several artificial pores/channels of similar sizes are being engineered synthetically. Such pores can be used in many technologies including filtration, molecular separation, desalination, DNA sequencing to name but a few. The key aim of the project is to develop methods to produce robust porous nanomembranes on a large scale by slicing porous and layered materials. While there are several excellent porous and layered materials which have angstrom-scale channels, there are several bottlenecks to incorporate them into membranes to utilize their full potential in applications such as filtration, ion sieving, power generation etc. Moreover, when such porous materials are cast into membranes, the pore clogging, fragility, control on the channel length and leaky paths are also major issues. Here we address all these problems by using a simple and robust technique for manufacturing nanomembranes from slicing the pristine materials embedded in a resin matrix. We propose a robust, scalable technique to make ultrathin membranes with nanomaterials, which are useful for molecular separation, osmosis, fuel cells, supercapacitors etc.The research will be carried out in University of Manchester, and National graphene Institute. Training of personnel in precise nano-manufacturing which is acquired though this project, is of immense importance to many areas of academic and industrial by underpinning fundamentals concepts in physics, materials chemistry, and nanofluidics, catering to the continually growing need for well-trained research personnel with appropriate technical knowledge, skills and expertise. This cohesive and innovative approach will develop new tools essential for precise assembly of porous materials in membranes.