Deakin Research

Institute for Frontier Materials

Micro and Nano Systems

Membrane structure of nanometer resolution
Group leader: Professor Lingxue Kong

Group members

Micro and Nano Systems research areas
  • Molecular Diagnostics
  • Synthesis and Characterisation of Membranes
  • Targeted Drug Delivery

Introduction

Micro and nano systems have demonstrated enormous potential for biomedical and environmental applications, given their unique characteristics at micro and nano dimension. For example, the flow in microfluidics and nanofluidics will be largely laminar, which has played a pivotal role in revolutionising a number of advanced technologies, such as microarray, separation technology, lab-on-a-chip, micro-propulsion, and micro-thermal technologies.

A number of innovative systems have been developed at Deakin.

PCRDisc for DNA amplification

DNA samples are amplified in a microfluidic chip

Two different DNA samples are successfully amplified and detected

The award winning design can simultaneously amplify multiplex short and long strand DNA samples with much reduced lead time, providing a potential point-of-care diagnostic technology to deal with infectious diseases and for remote communities.

Nanocharacterisation

Membrane structure of nanometer resolution

Membrane structure of nanometer resolution

3 dimensional characterisation of nanostructure is critical for the synthesis and evaluation of nanomaterials and systems. Deakin has developed an integrated system that automates the sample preparation, image acquisition and image analysis. A high resolution of 1.5nm has been achieved.

Molecular simulation

Water molecules moving through a membrane

Water molecules moving through a membrane


To model water and ion motions in nano pores.

Membrane: amorphous Si3N4
Pore: coneØ1.6nm + Ø0.8nm

Permeation as a function of:
  • Pore geometry (diameter and length)
  • Electric fields (membrane and pore surfaces)
  • Ions (type and concentration)
  • External pressure gradient



Membrane pore size will have a direct impact on the desalination efficiency


Membrane pore size will have a direct impact on the desalination efficiency



Pore size: 7.256Å
Membrane thickness: 3.4nm
Salt concentration: 2ml/kg
H2O: 621
Na+-CI- pairs: 16
Temperature: 295K
Pressure: 1atm
Force on H2O: 0.5kcal/mol Å


Group members

  • Dr Sugumar Dharmalingam
  • Dr Weimin Gao
  • A/Prof Lingxue Kong
  • Dr Mary She

Students

  • Feng An
  • Ronghua Chen
  • Weiwei Cong
  • Tahir Ghandoori
  • Chengpeng Li
  • Puwang Li
  • Xiangping Sun
  • Jin Wang
  • Yichao Wang
  • Xiaolei Yu
  • Jane Zhang

Deakin University acknowledges the traditional land owners of present campus sites.

20th February 2012