Abstract

Nanofluidics Enables Applications in Ionic Flow Control and Water Desalination

Shaurya Prakash, Assistant Professor, Ohio State University

Nanofluidics targets the science and technology for flow in and around structures with critical dimensions in the 1-100 nm range. Over the past decade, several advances in science of nanofluidic transport has enabled several novel applications relevant to the microfluidics and nanofluidics device community. In this talk, I will showcase the scientific advances pioneered by my group at the Microsystems and Nanosystems Laboratory at The Ohio State University. Moreover, I will discuss how these scientific advances in understanding aqueous electrolyte transport in glass nanochannels have enabled the possibility for several technological advances. As successful technological examples, I will show two technologies being developed by my team for (i) manipulating aqueous electrolytes in nanochannels for ionic flow control analogous to the solid state electronic transistor characteristics, and (ii) for generating engineered hydrophobic regions within nanochannels for high flux separations of water and ions, leading to novel platforms for high salinity water desalination.