TRANSIEVES project funding for GSI/FAIR researcher Professor María Eugenia Toimil-Molares
15.08.2024 |
María Eugenia Toimil-Molares, head of the GSI/FAIR Materials Research Department and Professor of Ion-Beam Modified Materials in the Department for Material- and Geosciences of the Technical University of Darmstadt, has acquired funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) amounting to around 350000 euros for the work package “Investigation of transient transport processes using individual gold nanopores as model systems” as part of the TRANSIEVES project. TRANSIEVES is a joint project between the TU Darmstadt and GSI/FAIR.
TRANSIEVES aims to study so called transient sieves, which constitute a novel technological concept to separate species dissolved or suspended in a liquid. Until now, separation processes have largely been based on spatial exclusion: It depends on whether a component is small enough to pass through a pore or not. The collaboration of researchers from TU Darmstadt and GSI/FAIR want to investigate separation by temporal exclusion, i.e. the permeability of a sieve or pore as a function of time. The decisive factor for selectivity is whether a species can pass through a pore in a certain time. The goal of the TRANSIEVES project is to equip sieves with novel and useful properties, e.g. increased selectivity or lower energy consumption.
The TRANSIEVES lead experiment “Electrically modulatable nanopores” strengthen the collaboration of GSI/FAIR and TU Darmstadt in the field of nanostructured materials. With ion track technology, GSI/FAIR provides a unique method for creating nanopores. As part of their sub-project, the GSI/FAIR research team led by Professor Toimil-Molares plans to synthesize single-pore polymer membranes, which will be produced using the unique single-ion irradiation facility at GSI/FAIR, and to modify them with gold coatings and nanoporous gold to characterize their voltage-controlled transport properties.
Professor María Eugenia Toimil-Molares has many years of expertise in the production of single-pore and multi-pore membranes by means of irradiation with high-energy heavy ions and subsequent chemical etching of the ion tracks, as well as in their functionalization, e.g. by atomic layer deposition. Her research activities also include the fabrication of metal, semi-metal and semiconductor nanowires with controlled dimensions by electrodeposition in the pores of the etched ion track polymer membranes. In addition, her group is researching the fabrication of other porous materials such as three-dimensional nanowire networks, porous gold, and metal-organic framework compounds.
The FOR 5584 project Transient Sieves is funded by the DFG under the project number 509491635. (CP/BP)
Further information
TRANSIEVES website at TU Darmstadt
