Descrizione del progetto
La struttura di legame a idrogeno dell’acqua sotto una nuova lente
L’acqua è il liquido più abbondante sulla Terra: essenziale per la vita, fa parte di quasi ogni singolo processo biologico, geologico e chimico. La struttura e la dinamica della rete di legame a idrogeno nell’acqua è ancora in fase di studio. Il progetto AngstroCAP, finanziato dall’UE, svilupperà nuovi dispositivi capillari per studiare la struttura e la dinamica dell’acqua. Questi dispositivi sono configurati come lab-on-a-chip, con canali in scala angstrom e pareti atomicamente lisce. Il progetto assemblerà capillari di pochi micron di lunghezza, inserendo due blocchi di cristalli stratificati, separati da un distanziatore a cristalli 2D dello spessore di un atomo. All’interno di questi canali, i ricercatori realizzeranno un’immagine della condensazione dell’acqua insieme all’analisi simultanea della struttura mediante spettroscopia in ambienti in-situ (temperatura, pressione).
Obiettivo
I will construct and apply next generation capillary devices as an exciting experimental platform to enable ground-breaking investigation of structure and dynamics of water at the ultimate molecular scale. These devices are in a lab-on-a-chip type configuration with angstrom-scale channels and atomically smooth walls. I am making them by scrupulous assembly tools in a controllable and reproducible fashion and they are extremely stable. Myself and my team will assemble capillaries of a few microns in length, by sandwiching two blocks of layered crystals, e.g. mica, graphite, boron nitride, separated by an atomically thin 2D-crystal spacer. Inside these channels, we will image water condensation along with simultaneous structure analysis by spectroscopy, under in-situ (temperature, pressure) environments. Another key aim of the project is to produce 2D slit-like pores on a large scale by slicing the pre-made 2D capillaries using sharp diamond knives, and explore their applications in size selective separation and biomolecular translocation. This ambitious research program is only possible because of my extensive angstrom-scale fabrication expertise, coupled with world leading fabrication capabilities at the University of Manchester.
Objectives
1: To utilize angstrom-scale capillaries constructed out of two-dimensional (2D) materials as a versatile platform for studying confinement effect on structure and dynamics of water.
2: To construct new types of angstrom-scale 2D-pores from these capillaries for studying size-selective molecular separation, biomolecular sequencing and translocation.
The project will have a lasting impact in understanding what the angstrom-scale confinement offers in terms of active control of molecular transport. Such confinement effects are efficiently utilized in various natural systems (e.g. protein channels) and the results could even aid in designing elementary building blocks of stimuli responsive artificial fluidic circuitry
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
M13 9PL Manchester
Regno Unito