Proposed Projects

Proposed Project I: Ion/Molecule Transport in sub-2 nm Nanochannels

Protein ion channels have exhibited various unique transport characteristics, such as selective K+ transport and ultra high proton mobility. Understanding and realizing these transport properties in artificial nanostructures could yield significant progress in energy conversion/storage and water desalination. Currently, 2-D confined sub-2nm nanotubes are the closest candidates to mimic the function of protein ion channels. These nanotubes can be fabricated based on SWCNT or using e-beam lithography coupled with atomic layer deposition technique. We propose to experimentally study ion/molecule transport in such nanotubes in the following three aspects: enhanced ion transport, selective Li+ transport and selective and fast water transport.

Proposed Project II: Nanostructured Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

英航

Proposed Project III: Patterned Micro/Nano Structures for Phase Change Heat Transfer

Ab

Proposed Project IV: Nanofluidic Devices for Biomedical Applications

One of the most important application areas of Nanofludics is bio-medicine. Since its length scale (~1-100 nm) is not only comparable with single biomolecule but also compatible with the range of several intermolecular forces, nanofluidics has been found lots of applications in genomics/proteomics, drug discovery, cancer diagnostics etc. Most of these new applications take the advantage of enhanced electrostatic interaction and steric interaction at the nanoscale. There have been few applications based on anomalous transport phenomena caused by enhanced van der Waals force/hydration force, surface interaction and surface-energy. We plan to develop new nanofluidic devices that harness these features for the following three applications: single ion/molecule detection, continuous protein separation and focusing; highly sensitive abel-free enzyme assay.