COMNACTSS · Controlling micro- and nano-channel transport with selective solvation
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-09-01 → 2017-12-11
- EU contribution
- €177,599
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Controlling micro- and nano-channel transport with selective solvation
More than ever before, the better usage of existing water resources must be addressed in order to meet the world’s growing demand for clean water. This requires advances in water treatment technology. An industrial wastewater of emerging concern is so called produced water, a byproduct of oil and gas extraction processes. Produced water is a multi-phase oil/water mixture, whereby small oil droplets are difficult to separate by traditional methods. While membrane processes are increasingly being used for wastewater treatment due to their environmental friendliness, low cost, and energetic efficiency, their use is still limited by severe loss of membrane performance due to fouling (clogging). Considerable research has been carried out to improve membrane conductivity and selectivity and to prevent membranes from clogging. Almost always, the mixture to be separated also contains ions from dissolved salts. The broad aim of this project was to explore how the dissolved ions affect the various membrane performance parameters and in particular, how the partitioning of ions between oil and water can be used to improve membrane performance.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The motivation for the COMNACTSS project comes from recent evidence that the selective solvation of ions in liquid mixtures has a dramatic influence on the interaction between colloids. Selective solvation introduces a new energy scale that is comparable with or often exceeds the thermal energy and this energy can be utilized for the dispersion of uncharged nano-particles, offering a polymer-and-surfactant-free pathway to nano-particle stabilization. The combination of a large energy-scale and chemical specificity offers a new handle for inducing liquid structuring and controlling flow at interfaces in confined and heterogeneous environments. I therefore propose to study theoretically, and by using molecular simulations, selective solvation in micro- and nano-fluidics. The research objectives are (i) gaining fundamental understanding of the dynamics of salt-containing mixtures in micro- and nano-fluidic channels and using it to investigate the transport of macromolecules through such channels. The use of salty mixtures will enable to greatly increase the transport of ions and macromolecules through pores, and the ability to control this transport, a key issue in science and technology. (ii) To uncover novel liquid-liquid interface destabilization mechanisms. The COMNACTSS project will advance the field of nanofluidics by introducing a new research paradigm which will enable new fundamental insights into the molecular organization and dynamics of complex fluids, with excellent potential to produce applications.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · UtrechtCoordinatorNetherlands
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union