Narayana Aluru

Abstract: In nanoscale fluid mechanics, the size of the fluid molecule is comparable to the size of the channel or pore through which the fluid is transported. At these length scales, many interesting issues arise, and classical understanding needs to be revisited. This talk focuses on highlighting some of the fundamental aspects that need to be considered at the molecular scale. First, we will discuss transport through nanotubes and understand the importance of the electronic structure of the nanotube on transport through it. Second, we will consider transport through ultrathin membranes containing catalytic sites. In addition to understanding complex reactive transport mechanisms, we will show that these mechanisms can be exploited for separating ionic complexes. Third, we will discuss quantum coupling between an interfacial fluid and solid and show that the fluid properties can be tuned by tuning the electronic structure of the solid. Finally, we will discuss memory effects in electrolyte transport through nanoporous materials. We show that asymmetry in transport properties due to ordering in confinement leads to hysteresis in current-voltage characteristics. Computational challenges stemming from the complex molecular transport to ionic memory will be addressed.

Bio: Aluru received the B.E. degree with honors and distinction from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India, the M.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and the Ph.D. degree from Stanford University, Stanford, CA. He was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, from 1995 to 1997. He joined the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin in August 2021. Prior to joining UT Austin, he was on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 1998 to 2021.