Date of Award
12-17-2015
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
Dr. Gangli Wang
Second Advisor
Dr. Ming Luo
Third Advisor
Dr. Ivaylo Ivanov
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Zhen Huang
Abstract
With the advancement of current nanotechnology and deeper understanding of mass transport through single solid state nanopores, more applications of nanopores are emerging have been inspired and brought up by biological nanopore. Steady state response has been widely studied and explored. However, dynamic ionic response has seldom been explored. Our group has studied ionic transport kinetics and reported unique time dependent ionic transport behavior through bench-top fabricated single glass nanopores. Compared to other solid state nanopore compartments, single nanopipettes have found applications in scanning ion conductance microscopy, controlled small volume delivery and biological imaging, due to their ease to fabricate and special geometry for precise tip spatial control. Other than generally considered radius and half cone angle, long shank geometry in nanopipettes is another parameter to affect ionic transport behaviors compared to other nanopores with shorter shank length. In this dissertation, the first research topic is dynamic ionic transport behaviors through single quartz nanopipettes from fundamental perspective. An important non-zero cross point separating normal and negative hysteresis current-potential (I-V) loops will be introduced and discussed by electroanalytical analysis. Strong time dependent I-V hysteresis at low frequency and interesting negative resistance behavior reveals the impacts of finite variation in nanogeometry specifically channel length effect. Next, dynamic ion transport through single nanopipettes is studied under a series of concentration gradient introduced. Ion transport dynamics through asymmetric nanogeometry contributed by migration and diffusion is deconvoluted and its implication in salinity gradient energy conversion is explained. In the third project, a new method to crystallize matter based on dynamic control of mass transport through single nanopipette is demonstrated using protein insulin.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/7937797
Recommended Citation
Li, Yan, "Mass Transport through Conical Nanopipettes and its Applications in Energy Conversion and Crystallization." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2015.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/7937797