Reactive Surface Nanodroplets

极小的液滴是许多工业和技术过程中的关键，因为它们的显着特性源于它们的微观尺寸。 这些液滴为化学和生物反应提供了分隔的环境，并表现出大的表面积与体积比，以增强不混溶液体之间的传热和传质。它们在液-液萃取中起着至关重要的作用，用于分离或回收有害或有价值的化合物，设计用于化学和催化反应的新型系统，配制食品和香水，优化药品，高通量分析和生物医学诊断，仅举几例。 尽管对广泛的应用具有重要意义，但预测和控制液滴在变化的环境中的行为仍然具有挑战性。 我们目前缺乏对液滴及其复杂动力学的了解，这意味着我们的知识存在重大差距。 因此，在许多过程中找到最佳操作窗口以获得液滴系统的期望性质目前仍然依赖于试错法。 该计划的成果将填补知识空白，并阐明在各种物理和化学条件下浸没（多组分）纳米液滴的基本特性。 该计划的长期目标是为复杂液滴系统的预测、设计和控制奠定基础，并促进广泛的液滴技术创新。 该计划的短期目标是定量了解多组分纳米液滴的形成，周围相转移过程中纳米液滴的动力学以及与外部流中组分的反应，并探索液滴启用纳米萃取作为先进分析技术中的新工艺的潜力。从这个项目中获得的基本理解是必不可少的，迫切需要的不仅是现代液-液萃取过程的时间效率的微量分析，或分区的材料合成，而且在更大的规模上的废水处理和生物燃料升级和光收集的界面催化转化。 利用胶体和界面科学，化学工程，分析化学和纳米材料的跨学科专业知识，该计划将为加拿大研究人员提供领导这一高度新颖和重要的研究领域的机会，并增强加拿大尖端研究在其他相关邻近领域的影响。HQP的培训是该计划的一个关键目标。该项目将培养2名博士，4名硕士和10名学士学位学生。 拟议的研究计划的多学科性质提供了独特的教育机会。除了获得核心学科领域的上级熟练程度，学生还将获得许多其他抢手的技能。

Extremely small droplets are key in many industrial and technological processes, because of their remarkable properties originating from their microscopic dimensions. These droplets provide compartmentalized environments for chemical and biological reactions and exhibit large surface-to-volume ratio for enhanced heat and mass transfer between immiscible liquids. They play a crucial role in liquid-liquid extraction for separating or recycling harmful or valuable compounds, design of novel systems for chemical and catalytic reactions, formulating food and perfumes, optimizing pharmaceutical products, high throughput analysis and biomedical diagnosis, just to name a few. Despite the significance to a broad range of applications, it remains challenging to predict and control the behavior of droplets within changing environments. Our present lack of understanding of droplets and their complex dynamics means a major gap in our knowledge. As such, finding an optimal operating window to obtain desired properties of droplet systems in many processes presently still relies on trial and error. The outcome from this program will fill the knowledge gap and illuminate the fundamental properties of immersed (multicomponent) nanodroplets under various physical and chemical conditions. The long-term objective of the program is to lay the foundation for predication, design and control of complex droplet systems and to facilitate innovation in a broad range of droplet-enabled technologies. The short-term objectives of this program are to quantitatively understand the formation of multicomponent nanodroplets, dynamics of nanodroplets during surrounding phase transfer and in reaction with components in an external flow, and to explore the potential of droplet-enabled nanoextraction as a novel process in advanced analytic technology. The fundamental understanding gained from this project is essential and urgently needed not only for modern liquid-liquid extraction processes for time efficient microanalysis, or for compartmentalized material synthesis, but also on larger scales for wastewater treatment and interfacial catalytic conversion in biofuel upgrading and light harvesting. Drawing on interdisciplinary expertise from colloid and interface science, chemical engineering, analytic chemistry and nanomaterials, this program will provide Canadian researchers with the opportunity to lead this highly novel and important research area, and enhance the impact of Canadian cutting edge research in other relevant neighboring areas. Training of HQP is a key objective of the program. The program will train 2 PhD, 4 Master's and 10 Bachelor's students. The multidisciplinary nature of the proposed research program affords unique educational opportunities. Beyond gaining superior proficiency in core subject areas, the students will also gain many other sought-after skills.