The structural customization of surfaces on increasingly smaller scales, in particular the shape and size of porous channels, is essential to control the behavior of different fluids as well as to develop functional applications. Researchers from the Surface Nanotechnology group, attached to the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (center belonging to cicCartuja), have managed to produce nanostructured surfaces that allow the control of the passage of different gases and liquids, as well as maximizing their interaction with them.
These researchers have obtained excellent results by developing porous surfaces with well-defined channels on scales of tens of nanometers, causing different gaseous species to affect a surface and controlling the processes of atomic assembly and nanostructuring. This technique not only allows the formation of channels on smaller scales and sizes than other known procedures, but is also industrially scalable.
In the study published in the journal Nanotechnology, the channels and structures emerge spontaneously following certain anisotropic patterns dependent on the angle of incidence of the gases and the chemical nature of the material.
The extraordinary control of porosity achieved—creation of nanochannels on scales of tens of nanometers—is relevant not only from a fundamental point of view, but also for the development of fluid sensors, batteries, or for the transport of various chemical substances.