Materials exhibiting biomimetic carbon fixation and self-repair
A composition can photocatalytically reduce carbon dioxide.
Strano, Michael S.↗
Engineering topics
Strano, Michael S.
Publications and source records attributed to Strano, Michael S..
Colloidal State Machines as Smart Tracers for Chemical Reactor Analysis
A widely utilized tool in reactor analysis is passive tracers that report the residence time distribution, allowing estimation of the conversion and other properties of the system. Recently, advances in microrobotics have introduced powered and functional entities with sizes comparable to some traditional tracers. This has motivated the concept of Smart Tracers that could record the local chemical concentrations, temperature, or other conditions as they progress through reactors. Herein, the design constraints and advantages of Smart Tracers by simulating their operation in a laminar flow reactor model conducting chemical reactions of various orders are analyzed. It is noted that far fewer particles are necessary to completely map even the most complex concentration gradients compared with their conventional counterparts. Design criteria explored herein include sampling frequency, memory storage capacity, and ensemble number necessary to achieve the required accuracy to inform a reactor model. Cases of severe particle diffusion and sensor noise appear to bind the functional upper limit of such probes and require consideration for future design. The results of the study provide a starting framework for applying the new technology of microrobotics to the broad and impactful set of problems classified as chemical reactor analysis.
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
Fluids and Electrolytes under Confinement in Single-Digit Nanopores
Not Available
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Discretized hexagonal boron nitride quantum emitters and their chemical interconversion
Quantum emitters in two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are of significant interest because of their unique photophysical properties, such as single-photon emission at room temperature, and promising applications in quantum computing and communications. The photoemission from hBN defects covers a wide range of emission energies but identifying and modulating the properties of specific emitters remain challenging due to uncontrolled formation of hBN defects. In this study, more than 2000 spectra are collected consisting of single, isolated zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) between 1.59 and 2.25 eV from diverse sample types. Most of ZPLs are organized into seven discretized emission energies. All emitters exhibit a range of lifetimes from 1 to 6 ns, and phonon sidebands offset by the dominant lattice phonon in hBN near 1370 cm -1 . Two chemical processing schemes are developed based on water and boric acid etching that generate or preferentially interconvert specific emitters, respectively. The identification and chemical interconversion of these discretized emitters should significantly advance the understanding of solid-state chemistry and photophysics of hBN quantum emission.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Gas Separations using Nanoporous Atomically Thin Membranes: Recent Theoretical, Simulation, and Experimental Advances
Abstract Porous graphene and other atomically thin 2D materials are regarded as highly promising membrane materials for high‐performance gas separations due to their atomic thickness, large‐scale synthesizability, excellent mechanical strength, and chemical stability. When these atomically thin materials contain a high areal density of gas‐sieving nanoscale pores, they can exhibit both high gas permeances and high selectivities, which is beneficial for reducing the cost of gas‐separation processes. Here, recent modeling and experimental advances in nanoporous atomically thin membranes for gas separations is discussed. The major challenges involved, including controlling pore size distributions, scaling up the membrane area, and matching theory with experimental results, are also highlighted. Finally, important future directions are proposed for real gas‐separation applications of nanoporous atomically thin membranes.
2D materials↗
Thermally fluctuating, semiflexible sheets in simple shear flow
Fluctuating semiflexible sheets dispersed in a fluid are simulated under simple shear flow. A dynamical crumpling transition is observed, flipping statistics are quantified, and rheological properties are estimated for dilute suspensions of sheets.
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
Nanobionic engineering of organelles and photosynthetic organisms
In one aspect, a composition can include an organelle, and a nanoparticle having a zeta potential of less than −10 mV or greater than 10 mV contained within the organelle. In a preferred embodiment, the organelle can be a chloroplast and the nanoparticle can be a single-walled carbon nanotube associated with a strongly anionic or strongly cationic polymer.
Strano, Michael S.↗
Sensor for infrared communication using plant nanobionics
A living plant can function as self-powered auto-samplers and preconcentrators of an analyte within ambient groundwater, detectors of the analyte contained therein. For example, a pair of near infrared (IR) fluorescent sensors embedded within the mesophyll of the plant leaf can be used as detectors of the nitroaromatic molecules, with the first IR channel engineered through CoPhMoRe to recognize analyte via an IR fluorescent emission and the second IR channel including a functionalized nanostructure that acts as an invariant reference signal.
Strano, Michael S.↗
Materials exhibiting biomimetic carbon fixation and self-repair
A composition can photocatalytically reduce carbon dioxide.
Strano, Michael S.↗
Direct Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Porous Single-Layer Graphene Membranes with High Gas Permeances and Selectivities
Single-layer graphene containing molecular-sized in-plane pores is regarded as a promising membrane material for high-performance gas separations due to its atomic thickness and low gas transport resistance. However, typical etching-based pore generation methods cannot decouple pore nucleation and pore growth, resulting in a trade-off between high areal pore density and high selectivity. In contrast, intrinsic pores in graphene formed during chemical vapor deposition are not created by etching. Therefore, intrinsically porous graphene can exhibit high pore density while maintaining its gas selectivity. Here in this work, the density of intrinsic graphene pores is systematically controlled for the first time, while appropriate pore sizes for gas sieving are precisely maintained. As a result, single-layer graphene membranes with the highest H 2 /CH 4 separation performances recorded to date (H 2 permeance > 4000 GPU and H 2 /CH 4 selectivity > 2000) are fabricated by manipulating growth temperature, precursor concentration, and non-covalent decoration of the graphene surface. Moreover, it is identified that nanoscale molecular fouling of the graphene surface during gas separation where graphene pores are partially blocked by hydrocarbon contaminants under experimental conditions, controls both selectivity and temperature dependent permeance. Overall, the direct synthesis of porous single-layer graphene exploits its tremendous potential as high-performance gas-sieving membranes.
chemical vapor deposition↗
Methods for selective functionalization and separation of carbon nanotubes
The present invention is directed toward methods of selectively functionalizing carbon nanotubes of a specific type or range of types, based on their electronic properties, using diazonium chemistry. The present invention is also directed toward methods of separating carbon nanotubes into populations of specific types or range(s) of types via selective functionalization and electrophoresis, and also to the novel compositions generated by such separations.
Strano, Michael S.↗
Selective functionalization of carbon nanotubes
The present invention is directed toward methods of selectively functionalizing carbon nanotubes of a specific type or range of types, based on their electronic properties, using diazonium chemistry. The present invention is also directed toward methods of separating carbon nanotubes into populations of specific types or range(s) of types via selective functionalization and electrophoresis, and also to the novel compositions generated by such separations.
Strano, Michael S.↗
Method for separating single-wall carbon nanotubes and compositions thereof
The invention relates to a process for sorting and separating a mixture of (n, m) type single-wall carbon nanotubes according to (n, m) type. A mixture of (n, m) type single-wall carbon nanotubes is suspended such that the single-wall carbon nanotubes are individually dispersed. The nanotube suspension can be done in a surfactant-water solution and the surfactant surrounding the nanotubes keeps the nanotube isolated and from aggregating with other nanotubes. The nanotube suspension is acidified to protonate a fraction of the nanotubes. An electric field is applied and the protonated nanotubes migrate in the electric fields at different rates dependent on their (n, m) type. Fractions of nanotubes are collected at different fractionation times. The process of protonation, applying an electric field, and fractionation is repeated at increasingly higher pH to separated the (n, m) nanotube mixture into individual (n, m) nanotube fractions. The separation enables new electronic devices requiring selected (n, m) nanotube types.
Smalley, Richard E.↗