(Sub)-nanofluidics with two-dimensional materials

Water and ions show curious behavior when constricted by two-dimensional materials at the scales of few nanometers or less – the phenomena include the edge-enhance ionic current in graphene nanopores, anomalous ionic flow in nanotubes, and frictionless water transport in graphene and graphene-oxide nanochannels. Intimate understanding of such behavior would raise prospects in many applications, including filtration membranes, single-biomolecule analysis, supercapacitors, etc.
In this talk, I will present a systematic experimental investigation of the ionic flow in nanopores and nanochannels, of atomically-smooth graphene and chemically controllable graphene oxide GO channels. Based on these studies, we are able to rationally engineer new membranes of desirable properties, and upscaling them for desalination, electrodialysis and pervaporation, with properties matching or exceeding those of commercial membranes. W