Diffusion of Nanoparticles in a Potential Energy Landscape
Project Description
Diffusion of nanoparticles in a potential energy landscape is an interesting problem with important applications in many areas such as biophysics, microelectronics, surface physics and chemistry, and nanotechnology. In a potential energy landscape, nanoparticles can be trapped, transmitted, or reflected. Although the diffusion equation of these particles is well known, its solution may be very complicated when applied to potential energy landscapes of arbitrary shapes, and one needs to resort to numerical techniques. Recently, we predicted that nanoparticles exhibit a kiss-and-run phenomenon at the edge of a potential well.
Supervisor
WONG Michael Kwok Yee
Quota
2
Course type
UROP1000
UROP1100
UROP2100
UROP3100
UROP3200
UROP4100
Applicant's Roles
1. Apply numerical techniques to elucidate the diffusion behavior of nanoparticles at the edge of a potential well with different shapes of the interface.
2. Compare the diffusion behavior with experimental observations provided by Professor Hyokeun Park's laboratory.
3. (If time allows) Predict the most suitable shape of the potential interface for the observation of the kiss-and-run effect and make suggestions to Professor Park's laboratory for further experiments.
Applicant's Learning Objectives
1. Learn the concepts and theory of statistical physics pertaining to the diffusion of nanoparticles.
2. Learn the numerical techniques to model dynamical systems.
3. Learn how theoretical and experimental researchers can work together to obtain meaningful comparative results.
Complexity of the project
Moderate