Nanofluidics

Ion and water transport at the nanoscale is essential to life and to numerous industrial applications. At this scale, macroscopic physics no longer applies, making a deeper fundamental understanding necessary. More efficient tools are also needed to address sustainable development challenges, particularly in nanofiltration for seawater desalination, “blue” energy production, and single-molecule recognition. This is a promising area of physics for the development of iontronic chips, which could be useful in health, energy, computing, and environmental fields.

The study of transport within nanopores—whether synthetic or natural, such as biological ion channels (BICs)—engages research across chemistry, physics, and biology. The goal is to determine whether electrolyte diffusion at this scale is accelerated, selective, or both, in order to achieve precise control over these processes.

Funded projects on this topic :

• ANR CANELONI (2025-2029) : multi-scale approach to bio-inspired hybrid systems for nanofiltration and iontronics
• ANR IONESCO (2019-2023) : Coupling between ionic and electronic transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes