The small diameters of CNTs or other nanoporous materials allow for selective transport of different species, as predicted by simulations, making them into potentially useful materials in separation technologies. The large surface areas available with these materials have led to proposals for use in gas storage, purification, or as a support material for catalysis. Using these applications by way of a dynamic process will require some understanding of how materials are transported through a medium consisting of CNTs, as this may be the determining factor of the dynamics of these processes. Characterizing flow of gases and liquids through nanoporous materials by way of pressure/flow measurements is relatively straightforward. The major challenge in this work is actually producing these nanopores on a macroscopic membrane. We are actively pursuing fabrication of free-standing mesoporous alumina and silica films with well-defined nanopores oriented perpendicular to the substrate plane. As the transport in nanopores is expected to have a non-negligible dependence on the interaction of the fluid with the wall material, we also wish to produce walls with carbonaceous material and measure changes in transport properties resulting from these different materials.

In the growth of carbon nanotubes, our lab utilizes several different chemical vapor depostion (CVD) techniques, including RF inductively/capacitively coupled plasmas, hot filament/DC plasma CVD, and a furnace-based catalytic CVD approach. Future plans also exist for constructing a furnace reactor for large scale carbon nanotube production. Of the numerous groups working on carbon nanotube growth, very few have attempted to make any meaningful characterization of the important process steps leading to growth. The majority of work in the literature are results-oriented, and include many postulations about growth mechanisms without any definitive backing measurements. Using various well-known diagnostics, including optical emission, broadband absorption and residual gas analysis, I am working with other nanotube-growth researchers in the lab to characterize the chemistries of these processes and thus improve the understanding of steps necessary to nanotube growth.

I also contribute work to the plasma research lab in the materials processing group.