TOWARDS NOVEL NANO-SCALE TECHNOLOGIES BASED ON PHORETIC FLOW EFFECTS

Project Information

NANOPHLOW

Grant agreement ID: 766972

DOI

10.3030/766972

Project closed

EC signature date 30 August 2017

Start date 1 February 2018

End date 31 October 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 3 299 670,01

EU contribution

€ 3 299 670,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NANOPHLOW (TOWARDS NOVEL NANO-SCALE TECHNOLOGIES BASED ON PHORETIC FLOW EFFECTS)

Reporting period: 2019-02-01 to 2021-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Most devices that transport bulk fluids make use of pressure gradients (`pumps’) or external forces (e.g. gravity powers hydro-electric turbines). Increasingly, modern technology is addressing problems where fluid transport takes place in sub-micron sized channels, or in pores. The physical laws of transport in such channels are qualitatively different from those that determine bulk flow; they are poorly understood and, importantly, barely exploited. The aim of the proposed research is to lay the basis for an entire novel technology where thermal gradients and concentration gradients along nano-sized channels are harnessed to drive devices that have no equivalent on the macroscopic scale.
As we argue, such gradient-driven surface flows (`phoretic’ flows) offer a huge scope for fundamental advances with very significant technological implications. In particular, we envisage breakthroughs in the area of energy extraction from salinity gradients (`blue energy’), ultra-filtration and desalination, and the development of novel, highly sensitive protein-separation devices. This new approach is required to surpass the intrinsic limitations of current technologies. The expected huge improvement in efficiency will be a game changer and will break the current barriers in the development of technologies such as e.g. osmotic energy harvesting.
The very breadth of scope of these applications indicates the wide relevance of the subject. Yet, the applications all share the same underlying science and can therefore be addressed by the team that collaborates in this proposal. Our project targets the development of ground-breaking and commercializable technologies in two key areas and is based on a dual-track approach: We will use a combination of basic theory and well-designed experiments to arrive at a quantitative prediction of phoretic phenomena. In parallel, we will engage with industrial partners inside the team and with new partners that we will approach through our Knowledge Transfer Facilitator, to translate basic science into proofs-of-principle, pilot plants and, subsequently, full scale applications. The potential economic impact of phoretic technologies is difficult to over-estimate: the research is truly high-risk, high-yield. By targeting two diverse applications, we exploit the generic nature of the underlying science. The quality and interdisciplinary nature of the team mitigates the risk of failure.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The first period has contributed to advance in the objectives that identify the project, namely,
Gain a deeper and more clear understanding of the microscopic origin of thermodynamic driving
Develop flexible molecular and mesoscale computational methods for the simulation of thermodynamic driving
Investigate the microscopic mechanisms of Electro-/Diffusio-/Thermo- phoretic transport within the first nanometres of surfaces, in individual nanotubes made of carbon, boron- nitride and combination of both, as well as through 2D molecular sheets (graphene, h-BN)
Analyse the potential of new classes of nanomaterials (nanotubes made of carbon, boron- nitride and combination of both, as well as through 2D molecular sheets (graphene, h-BN)) for thermodynamic transport
Explore and quantify nanoscale thermodynamic driving to fabricate new phoretic functionalities (diodes, transistors...)
Application of new phoretic functionalities as alternative mechanism for transport and manipulation of binary mixtures and complex flows
Harvest phoretic transport in pre-screened nanomaterials to attain an industrially viable technology for osmotic power conversion
Target industrially scalable materials with cost competitiveness and suitable membrane proprieties
Analyze strategies to build membranes out of promising competitive materials at the level of nanopores
Characterize the performance of these new membranes with respect to energy conversion and desalination, and address specifically the new physical issues associated to scale-up of nano- fluidic transport
Exploit outcome of previous objective as a feasibility assessment for further up-scaling and industrial transfer
Use of thermodynamic driving forces to identify, analyse and control the behaviour of proteins and their nanoscale complexes
Understand the interplay between size, charge and hydrophobicity on the nanoscale and microscale concentration gradients in diffusiophoresis
Connect the phoretic mobility to the structure and sequence of proteins
Explore the use of phoretic effects in a new generation of analytical instrument in protein science

The results that we have obtained so far do fully confirm that the advent of nanofluidics has a key role to play in the domain of osmotic energy and water treatment. The multiscale approach, from the single nanopore to the membrane scales, has allowed us to identify new types of behaviors which could be scaled-up to macroscopic membranes. The new opportunities brought by nanofluidics in terms of the variety of nanoscale geometries and materials, combined with state-of-the- art experimental instrumentation, allows to fabricate and investigate fundamentally the transport in ever smaller channels, with ever more complex and rich behaviors.
Our first results described above do fully confirm the great potential of the phoretic transport at the nano-scale for the development of breakthrough technologies in the field of blue energy and/or desalination.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project has advanced this first year as expected, starting to address quite a number of the tasks in which the project is organized,
There are no significant deviations with respect to the expected results.

This composed image illustrates some of the key outputs of NANOPHLOW,