In the second phase of MCEC, we have welcomed many new members. In this rubric we will introduce them to you.
Jeff Wood (UT)
… is an Assistant Professor at the Soft matter, Fluidics and Interfaces group (SFI) at University of Twente.
What do you do?
My research at the UT is focused on transport phenomena near and through heterogeneous or geometrically structured interfaces, most commonly in electric-driven processes involving ion-selective/charged interfaces. Electrodialysis is a typical application we study, where an applied electrical potential is used in a system with different ion-selective membranes to separate salty streams into concentrated (brine) and diluted (desalted) streams. In this process, the ion transport phenomena in the fluid phase near the interface of the membranes is limiting and my team uses geometrically-structured and/or heterogeneous interfaces to try to intensify this transport. We want to be able to operate more efficient or intensified processes by making use of electric-driven convection.
Structured Charge-Selective Interfaces
I typically focus on using heterogeneous or geometrically structured ion-selective/charged interfaces to enhance electric-driven processes. We study many varieties of ion-selective interfaces and processes within my team. For example, a PhD who has recently started will study enhancing transport in electrodialysis using structured close-packed colloidal networks. These networks can be mimics of membranes, they perform a similar function to an ion-exchange membrane but can be patterned in a very controlled manner. This makes them an excellent experimental platform to try to understand how we can design or modify commercial membranes to take advantage of electric-driven convection in electrodialysis.
Future Collaborations within MCEC
MCEC is an excellent collaborative environment, bringing together theoreticians and experimentalists from a variety of disciplines (chemistry, chemical engineering, electrical engineering amongst others). I already collaborated with some of the first round MCEC PhDs and enjoyed ‘joining forces’ to contribute some of my transport phenomena knowledge. I’m looking forward to continued collaborations within MCEC.