Nano/micro/meso/multifunctional intensification strategies for greener multiphase reactors/materials

《自然》杂志2017年的一项研究（Ballagh et al.（2017）Nature 548，S6）绘制了高质量研究与发明的相关性及其对行业的影响。在未来工业的核心，对未来研究前景的展望指出了能源前景和可持续发展的矿产供应，以及将二氧化碳用于遏制全球变暖。拟议的发现补助金研究计划坚持这三联设计纳米/微米/介/多功能（n3 m）强化战略的反应器/材料，重点是升级/转换化石能源和新型纳米流体/绿色溶剂（矿物）混合/分离/反应。这些系统的一个共同点是它们的多尺度/多相性质，尺度的诅咒挑战了我们的理解，并最终挑战了可靠技术的设计。从我们过去的认识中可以看出，我们的长期目标是制定变革性的n3 m战略，以刺激检查规模。在未来五年内，这些战略将以三个短期目标的形式下降：1）纳米/微米级多功能强化; 2）海洋应用的微/中尺度强化; 3）矿物分离的微/中尺度强化。

A 2017 study from Nature (Ballagh et al. (2017) Nature 548, S6) charted the correlation of high-quality research with inventions and their influence on industry. At the heart of tomorrow's industry, a tour d'horizon on future research perspectives pinpoints the energy horizon and the mineral supply for sustainable development in conjunction with putting carbon dioxide at work to curb global warming. The proposed Discovery Grant research program adheres to this triptych by devising nano/micro/meso/multifunctional (n3m) intensification strategies for reactors/materials with focus on upgrade/conversion of fossil energy and novel nanofluid/green solvent (mineral) mixing/separation/reaction. A common thread to these systems is their multiscale/multiphase nature whereby the curse of scales challenges our understanding and ultimately the design of reliable technologies. As exemplified from our past realizations, our long term objective is to develop transformative n3m strategies to stimulate the bottlenecking scale(s). Over the next five years, these strategies will be declined in the form of three short-term objectives 1) Nano/microscale multifunctional intensification; 2) Micro/mesoscale intensification for marine applications, 3) Micro/mesoscale intensification for mineral separation.