Welcome to the next PoreLab lecture!
Who: Dr. Olivier Vincent, Permanent Research Scientist at CNRS, Institut Lumière Matière, Lyon, France
When: Wednesday 11 October at 13:00 (Oslo time)
Where: on zoom https://uio.zoom.us/j/65837085049?pwd=WjZianUyN3FJa2liQkxBbzQrOCtGdz09
Title: Water and solutions in nanoporous media: capillarity, osmosis and phase change
Abstract:
I will discuss a series of experiments that illustrate the rich physics of phase transitions and transport in nanopores, using water and salt solutions. I will first present results about the dynamics of water uptake and evaporation in nanoporous media, triggered by humidity changes. These results show different behaviors and different physics (including capillary imbibition, cavitation etc.) depending on the applied conditions and their history. I will also show how these behaviors change when adding solutes to the water; from these measurements we can also obtain useful information about how nanoscale confinement modify the conditions for crystallization and deliquescence of salts. Most of these observations can be rationalized using a combination of capillarity, osmosis and nucleation in confinement. They also connect to various areas of science and technology, including plant physiology, geophysics and heritage preservation, among others