Award Abstract #0210258 NIRT - Collaborative Research: Experimental and Computational Investigations of Fluid Interactions/Transport in Nanodomains and Around Nanoparticles
Ken Chong
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
ENG Directorate for Engineering
Start Date:
October 1, 2002
Expires:
March 31, 2007 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:
$622350
Investigator(s):
Robert Thompson rwt@wpi.edu (Principal Investigator)
W. Grant McGimpsey (Co-Principal Investigator) Nikolaos Gatsonis (Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 INSTITUTE RD
WORCESTER, MA 01609 508/831-5000
NSF Program(s):
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC PROGRAM, AMERICAS PROGRAM, NANOSCALE: INTRDISCPL RESRCH T, PARTICULATE &MULTIPHASE PROCES
Field Application(s):
0308000 Industrial Technology
Program Reference Code(s):
MANU, 9146, 5977, 5924, 5921, 5918, 1788, 1674
Program Element Code(s):
5978, 5977, 1674, 1415
ABSTRACT
This grant is made under the Nanoscale Sciences and Engineering initiative, NSF 01-157, category NIRT, to address the growing interest in developing manufacturing processes and systems that involve fluids at the nanoscale. There also is continuing evidence that fluid phenomena that occur at the nanoscale are unlike macroscopic behavior. For example, some hydrophobic channels will permit liquid water to exist, while only slightly narrower channels will only permit water vapor to exist. Similar phenomena are expected to manifest when evaluating fluids other than water. The proposed experimental, theoretical and computational investigations will focus on the confinement and transport of water, alcohols, amines, and other interesting organic compounds in nanochannels. We will investigate both rectangular and cylindrical geometries with length scales from 1 nm to 1000 nm, and diameters, or widths, from 0.1 nm to 15 nm (or even larger). Surface materials will span the regime from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, considering amorphous and crystalline inorganic materials, and polymeric materials. Additionally, transport rates of fluids through nanochannels will be evaluated. It is anticipated that fluid flow properties and transport rates will be governed by fluid-surface interactions to a far greater extent than observed in macroscopic channels. The investigations at WPI will be complemented by research on flow behavior of nanoparticles in conventional, rotating and circulating fluidized beds performed by the NIRT group at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
The generic geometry of the nanofluidic system and fluids to be considered are representative of important manufacturing systems and processes. The outcomes of the research have significance to nano-rheology, nano-lubrication, control of nanosurface properties, modeling and simulation at the nanoscale, lab-on-a-chip technologies, and other nanofluidic devices. Biosystems and environmental processes that involve nanofluidic transport through membranes and channels will also benefit from the expected outcomes. The research will be performed by an interdisciplinary team of PIs and graduate students at WPI that will collaborate with the NIRT group at NJIT. Additionally, we have collaborations with researchers in Taiwan, Germany, and Canada that will be of benefit to this effort. This investigation also has a strong educational component and will take advantage of WPI's project-based educational system that requires each undergraduate to conduct a technical team-project (called the Major Qualifying Project, or MQP) and a team-project involving Society/Technology interactions (called the Interactive Qualifying Project, or IQP). Each MQP or IQP is equivalent to a three-course workload. The integration of undergraduate education and research will be pursued with MQPs to be conducted by teams of undergraduates from the three departments where the three PIs reside. In addition, the societal impacts of nanosciences and nanotechnologies will be pursued by a team of undergraduates conducting IQPs. These undergraduate projects will provide means for educating young scientists and engineers in new emerging technologies in interaction with an interdisciplinary research team.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Cooper, CGF; MacDonald, JC; Soto, E; McGimpsey, WG. "Non-covalent assembly of a photoswitchable surface," JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, v.126, 2004, p. 1032-1033.
Fleys, M. and Thompson, R. W.. "Monte-Carlo simulations of water adsorption isotherms in silicalite and dealuminated zeolite Y," Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, v.1, 2005.
Matthieu Fleys, Robert W. Thompson, John C. MacDonald. "Comparison of the behavior of water in silicalite and dealuminated zeolite Y at different temperatures by Molecular Dynamic Simulations," J. Phys. Chem. B, v.108, 2004.
Soto, E; MacDonald, J. C.; Cooper, G. F.; McGimpsey, W. G.. "A Non-Covalent Strategy for the Assembly of Supramolecular Photocurrent-Generating Systems," Journal of the American Chemical Society, v.125, 2003.
Yazaydin, A. O. and Thompson, R. W.. "Molecular Simulation of the Adsorption of MTBE in Silicalite, Mordenite, and Zeolite Beta," J. Phys. Chem. B, v.110, 2006.
Yazaydin, A. O. and Thompson, R. W.. "Simulating the Vapour-Liquid Equilibria of 1,4-Dioxane," Molecular Simulation, v.32, 2006.
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