Nanostructured Membranes

纳米结构膜

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05133
• 负责人: Boutilier, Michael
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715297
• 关键词: Nanostructured; Membranes

Membrane based separation processes typically require less energy than competing technologies but are often limited by low flow rates and low selectivities. Advanced nanomaterials open new possibilities for membrane designs that could revolutionize membrane technology through enhanced permeance and selectivity. The orders of magnitude higher performance predicted for nanostructured membranes would improve the efficiency of separation systems for clean water and energy in Canada and abroad, including those for natural gas purification, petrochemical separations, carbon capture, and desalination. Nanostructured membrane designs include those made from carbon nanotubes or atomically thin materials, such as graphene. Their structures contain atomic-scale flow passages that can reject molecules based on size or affinity while providing fast flow of the selected species. However, significant challenges remain to realize high performance nanostructured membranes on a practical scale. This research program will focus on developing nanostructured membrane technology and understanding fluid flow through their sub-nanometer structures. We will develop atomically-thin membranes by targeting the two major obstacles to their scalability: leakage through material defects and pore size non-uniformity. Two-dimensional materials beyond graphene, including those with inherent nanoporosity, will be explored for advantages in membrane systems. We will pioneer new carbon nanotube membrane designs, such as composite graphene-carbon nanotube membranes and membranes from carbon nanotubes with highly porous walls. We will experimentally study gas, liquid, and ion flow through single sub-nanometer pores in nanostructured membranes to better understand mass transport at the smallest length scale. This research program will lead to discoveries in fundamental nanofluidics and improvements in the performance and scalability of nanostructured membrane technology. The significant performance gains promised by this technology would reduce the energy costs of a number of industrial separation processes relevant to Canada. It would expand the use of membranes in natural gas purification and petrochemical separation in the oil and gas industry. The extremely high permeance possible would enable economical carbon capture by near atmospheric pressure separation or oxygen enrichment for reduced emission power generation. The cost of water treatment and desalination processes will also be reduced. On the fundamental side, we will develop new tools to measure fluid flows on scales smaller than the detection limits of current instruments and may discover new fluid flow phenomena as the atomic-scale details of boundaries become important. This research program will advance the field of nanostructured membrane technology, impacting a variety of chemical and mechanical engineering separation processes.

基于膜的分离方法通常需要比竞争技术更少的能量，但通常受到低流速和低选择性的限制。先进的纳米材料为膜设计开辟了新的可能性，通过增强渗透性和选择性，可以彻底改变膜技术。预测纳米结构膜的数量级更高的性能将提高加拿大和国外清洁水和能源分离系统的效率，包括天然气净化，石化分离，碳捕获和脱盐。 纳米结构膜设计包括由碳纳米管或原子级薄材料（诸如石墨烯）制成的那些。它们的结构包含原子级的流动通道，可以根据大小或亲和力拒绝分子，同时提供所选物质的快速流动。然而，在实际规模上实现高性能纳米结构膜仍然存在重大挑战。 该研究计划将专注于开发纳米结构膜技术，并了解通过其亚纳米结构的流体流动。我们将通过针对其可扩展性的两个主要障碍来开发原子级薄膜：通过材料缺陷和孔径不均匀性的泄漏。除了石墨烯之外的二维材料，包括那些具有固有纳米孔隙率的材料，将被探索用于膜系统的优势。我们将开创新的碳纳米管膜设计，如复合石墨烯-碳纳米管膜和具有高度多孔壁的碳纳米管膜。我们将通过实验研究气体，液体和离子流通过纳米结构膜中的单个亚纳米孔，以更好地了解最小长度尺度下的质量传输。 这项研究计划将导致基础纳米流体的发现和纳米结构膜技术的性能和可扩展性的改进。该技术所承诺的显著性能收益将降低与加拿大相关的一些工业分离过程的能源成本。它将扩大膜在石油和天然气工业中天然气净化和石化分离中的应用。可能的极高渗透性将使得能够通过近大气压分离或富氧来经济地捕获碳以用于减少排放的发电。水处理和脱盐过程的成本也将降低。在基础方面，我们将开发新的工具来测量流体流动的尺度小于当前仪器的检测限，并可能发现新的流体流动现象，因为原子尺度的边界细节变得重要。该研究计划将推进纳米结构膜技术领域，影响各种化学和机械工程分离过程。