Ion Transport Dynamics at Nanoscale Interfaces in Single Asymmetric Nanopores and Nanopore Arrays (Final Scientific and Technological Report)
The grant (DE-SC0019043) from the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences has an overarching goal of establishing mechanistic understanding on the emerging time-dependent ion transport behaviors at nanometer scale interfaces in single nanopores and nanopore arrays with broken symmetry. The fundamental research aims to ultimately advance applications such as ion separation and desalination, or water purification; and energy harvesting, or power generation from salinity gradients. Water desalination refers to the process that removes excess salt or electrolyte ions from water to obtain fresh water. This process consumes energy and is important considering the increasing demand for fresh water, energy cost, concerns on environmental impacts, and needs in resource-limited conditions. The reverse process of desalination, for example where sea/brackish water and river/fresh water meet, can serve as unconventional sources to extract energy, sometimes referred as blue energy harvesting. A critical bottleneck in those and other relevant applications is the tradeoff in selectivity and throughput of ion transport, in other words the ability to discriminate and control the transport of ions against solvent water and/or among different ions. Fundamental insights and new design principles are needed to improve the efficacy and efficiency of the materials and devices for those applications. The green chemistry approaches in addressing energy and environmental challenges have been instrumental in inspiring the students at Georgia State University, an urban R-1 minority-serving institution that is both a predominantly black and hispanic serving institution, through PI’s research and teaching endeavors amid the significant impacts by the pandemic during the grant period.