In this activity, we have organized seminars on thermoplasmonics and its novel applications, with particular emphasis to seawater desalination and membrane technology.
The technological applications related to the excitation of localized surface plasmon modes have originated the emerging field of plasmonics. Among the various technological capabilities of plasmonics, those related to thermoplasmonics are particularly promising. Thermoplasmonics, i.e. the Joule heating associated to optically resonant plasmonic excitations in metal nanoparticles, is based on the control by means of light source of nanoscale thermal hotspots.
The most important concepts in nanotechnology and nanoscience have been clarified in a first seminar by dr. Marco Alfano, who described the impact of nanomaterials in technology in different fields. The synthesis of nanomaterials and nanoparticles has been also included in the discussion.
In a following seminar, Dr. Antonio Politano has explained the mechanisms of the first prototype of a system for membrane distillation for seawater desalination exploiting thermoplasmonic effects using nanomaterials as nanofillers in membranes. This is the result of a collaboration among physicists, chemists and chemical engineers of our University.
During this talk, it has been demonstrated how thermoplasmonics can be used as a viable and effective tool for improving the efficiency of membrane distillation to produce desalted water at high recovery factor and relatively low energy input.
The problem of the production of desalted water via seawater desalination is becoming remarkable since the number of countries suffering water scarcity problem has increased significantly in the last decades, due to the steadily demographic expansion and the amplified demand for water in industrial activities, in agriculture and for municipal purposes.
Particular attention has been dedicated to the attempt to improve the interaction with other departments. This is beneficial for our EPS-YM section, since we find a lot of interest toward thermoplasmonics from chemical engineers in our university. We find different contact points with young researchers in membrane technology.
In the seminar on thermoplasmonics, the state of the art has been presented, with attention on the various aspects: the characteristics of thermoplasmonics and the use of nanoscale thermal hotspots in various fields.
Seminars have been attended by about 30 students, coming from Physics, Materials Science and Chemical Engineering.
After the seminars, a discussion with students about the prospect of applied research on advanced materials has been done, under the coordination of prof. Chiarello, associate professor of Applied Physics.
