Polyelectrolyte Transport in Nanoporous Matrices

从纳米级DNA样品在微装置中的分馏到将合成聚合物注入巨型油藏，通过纳米孔基质的聚电解质运输存在于广泛的长度尺度和各种化学过程中。聚电解质是一种聚合物，它的重复单元在水环境中带有几个电荷。许多生物分子，如多肽（蛋白质）和DNA都是聚电解质。合成聚电解质广泛应用于提高石油采收率等技术和工业领域。然而，大多数关于聚电解质在纳米多孔基质中的传输的先前工作都是在简单和特定的实验条件下进行的，只有很少的组分，因此缺乏实际的复杂性。提出的研究计划侧重于了解多电解质迁移机制，并利用不同的实验和数值技术，在广泛的操作条件下量化迁移参数，如迁移率、扩散和分散。拟议研究的目标是：I)开发、设计和制造微/纳米流体装置作为研究聚电解质传输的实验平台，重点探索能够承受大多数能源生产相关过程中存在的恶劣操作条件的设计和材料；ii)提取和开发广义函数和无量纲参数，以预测和随后控制聚电解质在不同操作条件下的迁移率和分散。本研究的意义在于，通过使用广义函数来预测纳米多孔基质中的聚电解质传输动力学，可以很容易地优化聚电解质的结构和操作参数，如力场、基质结构和介质性质，从而实现高操作效率，而无需进行大量昂贵的探索性实验。研究成果将对生物技术和石油工业产生直接影响。

From the fractionation of nanolitre DNA samples in micro devices to the injection of synthetic polymers into giant oil reservoirs, polyelectrolyte transport through nanoporous matrices is present in a wide range of length scales and a variety of chemical processes. Polyelectrolytes are polymers whose repeating units bear several charges in aqueous environments. Many biological molecules such as polypeptides (proteins) and DNA are polyelectrolytes. Synthesized polyelectrolytes are used in a wide range of technological and industrial fields such as enhanced oil recovery. However, most of the prior work on polyelectrolyte transport through nanoporous matrices has been done under simple and specific experimental conditions with few components, and thus lacks practical complexities. The proposed research program focuses on understanding polyelectrolyte migration mechanisms and quantifying transport parameters such as mobility, diffusion, and dispersion under a wide range of operational conditions using different experimental and numerical techniques. The objectives of the proposed research are: i) to develop, design, and fabricate micro/nanofluidic devices as an experimental platform to study polyelectrolyte transport with a focus on exploring designs and materials that can endure hostile operational conditions present in most energy production related processes, and ii) to extract and develop generalized functions and non-dimensional parameters to predict and subsequently control the mobility and dispersion of polyelectrolytes under different operational conditions. The significance of this research is that by using generalized functions to predict polyelectrolyte transport kinetics in nanoporous matrices, one can readily optimize the polyelectrolyte architecture and operating parameters such as force fields, matrix structure, and media properties to achieve high operational efficiencies without conducting numerous costly exploratory experiments. The research outcome will have direct impact in biotechnology and petroleum industry.