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未名·芯论坛 | 第六十二期成功举行

7月11日下午,由北京大学集成电路学院、集成电路学院高精尖创新中心、北京大学国家集成电路产教融合创新平台、集成电路科学与未来技术北京实验室联合主办的“未名·芯”论坛系列讲座第六十二期在微纳电子大厦103报告厅成功举办。本期邀请瑞士洛桑联邦理工学院(EPFL)的Prof. Kumar Varoon Agrawal带来题为“Harnessing Nanoscale Insights to Engineer Scalable Atom-Thin Membranes: Journey from Lab Scale to Industrial Prototype”的精彩讲座。讲座由北京大学集成电路学院王路达研究员主持。

分离膜技术对于提高碳捕获效率和降低分离能耗等具有重要意义,因二维材料具有原子级薄的厚度,是未来理想的分离膜材料之一,可同时实现高渗透性和高选择性。Agrawal教授聚焦于高性能CO2分离膜的结构设计和扩展制备研究,致力于解决二维材料分离膜发展至今存在的可控孔引入和大规模制备两大关键挑战。

可控孔引入技术的难点在于同时实现埃米级尺寸的孔径、较窄的孔径分布和较高的孔密度,针对该难点Agrawal教授从机理出发,结合高分辨显微成像技术和第一性原理计算等研究方法,明晰了石墨烯面内孔结构的形成机理,并基于此发展了一套可控孔刻蚀装置,制备得到的石墨烯薄膜分离性能得到了显著提升。石墨烯分离膜的大规模制备需要克服转移过程中石墨烯的破损,针对该难点,Agrawal教授发展了利用机械增强膜辅助转移的方法,并结合卷对卷技术实现石墨烯分离膜的大规模制备,相关产品已在试用阶段。

讲座结束后,老师和同学们热情高涨,分享了自己对Agrawal教授的研究工作的思考,Agrawal教授就纳米孔构型的可视化、官能化和相关机理等问题与现场师生进行了深入交流和探讨,就二维材料分离膜的发展前景发表了自己的见解,为在场师生带来了深刻启发。

个人简介:

Agrawal is an Associate Professor and GAZNAT Chair of Advanced Separations at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2005. Following this, he joined the global R&D division of Procter & Gamble in Japan working on product design (2005-2008). He received his PhD degree from the University of Minnesota, developing two-dimensional zeolites, one of the first demonstration of 2D materials for molecular separations. He carried out postdoctoral research in the Strano group at MIT, studying nanofluidic confinement inside carbon nanotubes.

His research group at EPFL is developing scalable synthetic routes for porous two-dimensional membranes with an emphasis on designing next-generation high-lux selective membranes. He is the recipient of the AlChE Separation Division FRI/John G. Kunesh Award, NAMS Young Membrane scientist Award, ERC Starting Grant, EPFL Solutions4Sustainability grant, etc. He is editorial board member of the Journal of Membrane Science and Separations & Purification Technology. He is also a Co-founder of a membrane startup, Divea, focusing on bringing porous graphene membranes to market for carbon capture.