Séminaire général : Radha BOYA (Manchester UK) Angstrom-scaleFluidicChannels: Molecular Transport

Lien visioconférence https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/94262290163?pwd=MUtjMzhpd0Qvc3JjbUhZYWZxVGVTdz09
            ID de réunion : 942 6229 0163
            Code secret : REK15b

Résumé : Understanding molecular transport in nano/angstrom scale channels has practical relevance
in applications such as membrane desalination, blue energy, supercapacitors and batteries, as well as in
understanding ionic flow through biological channels. Synthetic Å-channels are now a reality with the
emergence of several cutting-edge bottom-up and top-down fabrication methods. In particular, the use
of atomically thin 2D-materials and nanotubes as components to build fluidic conduits has pushed the
limits of fabrication to the Å-scale. In this talk, I will discuss about angstrom (Å)-scale capillaries which
are rectangular slit-shaped channels and are created by extracting one-atomic layer out of a crystal [1].

The Å-capillary is an antipode of graphene and can be dubbed as “2D-nothing”. What is intriguing here
is, the dimensions of the thinnest channels being comparable to the size of a water molecule.
The Å-capillaries have helped probe several intriguing molecular-scale phenomena experimentally,
including: water flow under extreme atomic-scale confinement [1] complete steric exclusion of ions
[3,5], specular reflection and quantum effects in gas reflections off a surface [2,7], voltage gating of ion
flows [4] translocation of DNA [6]. I will present ionic flows induced by stimuli (electric, pressure,
concentration gradient) and discuss the importance of ionic parameters that are often overlooked in
the selectivity between ions, along with ionic memory effects [8].

[1] B. Radha et al., Nature 538, 222 (2016).
[2] A. Keerthi et al., Nature (2018), 558, 420.
[3] A. Esfandiar et al., Science 358, 511 (2017).
[4] T. Mouterde et al., Nature 567, 87 (2019).
[5] K. Gopinadhan et al., Science 363, 145 (2019).
[6] W. Yang et al., Advanced Materials 2007682, (2021).
[7] J. Thiruraman et al., Science Advances 6, eabc7927, (2020).
[8] P. Robin et al., Science (2022) in press, arXiv:2205.07653

Biogragphie: Prof. Radha Boya FRSC is a Professor, Royal Society University Research fellow and Kathleen Ollerenshaw fellow at the University of Manchester. After completing her PhD in India and a brief post-doctoral stint in the United States, she has secured a series of highly prestigious international research fellowships that have enabled her to rapidly build her research profile in the United Kingdom. She has published 60 research papers including several of these in Nature and Science journals. Radha was awarded an ERC starting grant, Philip Leverhulme Prize in Physics, RSC Marlow award, UNESCO-L’Oréal International Rising Talent, Analytical Chemistry Young Innovator award, L’Oréal UK & Ireland women in science fellow, and was recognized as an inventor of MIT Technology Review’s global “Innovators under 35” list