Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 15: Topical Session Nanoporous Functional Materials IV

MM 15.1: Topical Talk

Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 10:15–10:45, IFW B

Fluidics with Nanoporous Solid-State Membranes: From Fundamental Physics to Applied Biology — •Patrick Huber — Faculty of Physics and Mechatronics Engineering, Saarland University, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany

Transport of fluids across nanopores plays a crucial role in phenomena ranging from clay swelling, frost heave, oil recovery and catalysis, to colloidal stability, protein folding and transport in cells and tissues. The advent of tailorable nano- and mesoporous membranes, most prominently arrays of carbon nanotube bundles, of silicon, silica and alumina channels, has led to a growing interest in fundamental and applied questions with regard to the transport phenomenology across this kind of nanostructures. After a short introduction into this sub-field of nanofluidics, I will present experiments on pressure-driven and self-propelled (capillarity-driven) transport of fluids in nanochannels and will highlight differences between nanoscopic and macroscopic transport principles. Finally, I will elucidate how protein translocation experiments across artificial nanochannel arrays may allow the exploration of the transport machinery at biomembranes.