ABSTRACT
Ion transport at nanoscale is important in both fundamental research and applications. We will introduce our recent research about size effects in ion transport at sub-nano and angstrom-scale confinements. Two types of ion channels are used in our experiments, i.e. lattice pores in two-dimensional (2D) membranes and interlayer channels in 2D assembly. The influences of steric blockade, surface chemical groups and the interactions between translocation species to ion flow will be discussed in details. Finally, we focus on mechanisms and performance of osmotic power generation in these channels, where ion transport is driven by concentration gradient across the channels.
References:
[1] Z. Zhou, Y. Tan, Q. Yang, A. Bera, Z. Xiong, et al., Gas permeation through graphdiyne-based nanoporous membranes. Nat. Commun. 13, 1-6 (2022).
[2] G. Yuan, Y. Jiang, X. Wang, J. Ma, H. Wang et al., Ion and molecule sieving through highly stable graphene-based laminar membranes. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 14, 1702-1707 (2023).
[3] A. Quan, J. Zhu, J. Ma, K. Guan, C. Yang et al., Cation-gated ion transport at nanometer scale for tunable power generation. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 2625-2631 (2022).
[4] H. Wang, L. Su, M. Yagmurcukardes, J. Chen, Y. Jiang et al., Nano Lett. 12, 8634-8639 (2020).
BIO
Sheng Hu is a professor in Xiamen University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Nanjing University (2010), and his PhD degree in condensed matter physics from the University of Manchester (2014). After 4 years postdoc research work in National Graphene Institute in UK, he joined Xiamen University in 2018. His research interests focus on mass transport through nanoscale and angstrom-scale confinements, and has published more than 30 papers in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Nanotechnology, etc. with total citations more than 3000 times.