Aquaporins enable the passage of a diverse set of solutes besides water. Many novel aquaporin permeants, such as antimonite and arsenite, silicon, ammonia, and hydrogen peroxide, have been described very recently. By the same token, the number of available aquaporin sequences has rapidly increased. Yet, sequence analyses and structure models cannot reliably predict permeability properties. Even...

In this work we compute the effective thermal conductivity of porous Si by means of the phonon Boltzmann transport equation. Simulations of heat transport across aligned square pores reveal that the thermal conductivity can be decreased either by increasing the pore size or decreasing the pore spacing. Furthermore, by including the surface specularity parameter we show that the roughness of the...

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) particles account for 40 to 45% of worldwide gasoline production. The hierarchical complex particle pore structure allows access of long-chain feedstock molecules into active catalyst domains where they are cracked into smaller, more valuable hydrocarbon products (for example, gasoline). In this process, metal deposition and intrusion is a major cause for irrevers...

We successfully demonstrate an approach based on linker fragmentation to create defects and tune the pore volumes and surface areas of two metal-organic frameworks, NU-125 and HKUST-1, both of which feature copper paddlewheel nodes. Depending on the linker fragment composition, the defect can be either a vacant site or a functional group that the original linker does not have. In the first case...

The self-assembly of linear ABC triblock copolymers confined in spherical nanopores is studied using a simulated annealing technique. Morphological phase diagrams as a function of the pore diameter, the selectivity of the pore-wall to the terminal blocks, and the copolymer composition are constructed. A variety of patchy nanoparticles and multiple morphological transitions are identified. Janus...

Highly mesoporous nanosized carbon spheres (MCS) equipped with an active lipid bilayer demonstrate pronounced molecular release behavior, and excellent potential for drug delivery applications. We report a facile synthesis route for the creation of colloidal MCS with a bimodal pore size distribution, featuring a high BET surface area combined with high pore volume. Bimodal mesoporosity was achi...

The core-shell structured mesoporous silica nanomaterials (MSNs) are experiencing rapid development in many applications such as heterogeneous catalysis, bio-imaging and drug delivery wherein a large pore volume is desirable. We develop a one-pot method for large-scale synthesis of brain-like mesoporous silica nanocomposites based on the reasonable change of the intrinsic nature of the -Si-O-Si...

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising salt removal technology with high energy efficiency when applied to low molar concentration aqueous electrolytes. As an interfacial process, ion electrosorption during CDI operation is sensitive to the pore structure and the total pore volume of carbon electrodes limits the maximum salt adsorption capacity (SAC). Thus, activation of carbons as a wide...

Porous carbon materials are advantageous in adsorbing pollutants due to their wide range of specific surface areas, pore diameter, and pore volume. Among the porous carbon materials in the current study, expanded graphite, xGnP, xGnP C-300, xGnP C-500, and xGnP C-750 were prepared as adsorbent materials. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis was conducted to select the adsorbent material throug...

A series of activated carbons (ACs) were prepared by K2CO3 activation from kraft lignin (KL) that was recovered from papermaking black liquor. The effects of process parameters such as the activation temperature (AT), activated period, K2CO3 to KL mass ratio, and N2 flow rate on the characteristics of the final product were determined. The ACs were characterized using nitrogen adsorption, morph...