MAE Seminar – Nanoscale Mass Transport in 2D and 1D Nanomaterials for Energy, Environment and Healthcare

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MAE Seminar – Nanoscale Mass Transport in 2D and 1D Nanomaterials for Energy, Environment and Healthcare

Dear Undergraduate and Graduate Students, Faculty, and Staff,
You are invited! UF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s Seminar Series
This is a perfect opportunity to enjoy some coffee, cookies, and captivating talks! These sessions feature amazing guest speakers, from academic trailblazers and industry movers to our very own faculty candidates showing off their expertise and fresh perspectives.
Come for the treats, stay for the engaging discussions, and connect with fellow MAE enthusiasts. Everyone is welcome!

Nanoscale Mass Transport in 2D and 1D Nanomaterials for Energy, Environment and Healthcare

Feb 27, 2025, at 12:50pm, Location: MAE-A 303

Dr. Piran Ravichandran Kidambi
Harrington Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin
Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University

Abstract
2D and 1D nanomaterials offer fundamentally new opportunities to study, understand and control mass transport at the sub-nanometer-scale. Specifically, they allow for quantum tunneling and size-selective ionic/molecular transport/sieving. I will discuss our recent work in 2D material synthesis and processing to enable i) large-area atomically thin Helium barriers, ii) fully functional nanoporous atomically thin membranes for desalination, dialysis, and molecular separations, iii) bottom-up formation of nanopores in 2D lattices, iv) new approaches to probe sub-nanometer scale defects in centimeter scale 2D-single-crystals, v) size-selective defect sealing for functional large-area 2D membranes, vi) roll-to-roll manufacturing of atomically thin membranes, and vii) proton transport through atomically thin membranes for advancing energy conversion/storage and security. Finally, I will discuss transport in 1D nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes) for hemodialysis as well as some of our efforts to move these technologies to the commercial arena.

Biography
Piran R. Kidambi is a Harrington Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Professor at the Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University (on-leave). After receiving his PhD from the University of Cambridge, he pursued postdoctoral research at MIT through a Lindemann Trust Fellowship. Kidambi’s research leverages the intersection between (i) nanomaterial synthesis, (ii) process engineering, and (iii) in situ metrology, to enable bottom-up materials design and synthesis for energy, separations, and healthcare applications. His research has been recognized via several awards and honors including ASME Rising Star (2024), 2024 Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellowship at UT Austin, AIChE NSEF Young Investigator (2023), DOE Early Career Award (2022), ACS PMSE Young Investigator (2022), NSF CAREER (2020), ECS Toyota Young Investigator (2020), and Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award (2018), among others.

MAE Faculty Host: Ghatu Subhash