Metasoft 2025 - MOLECULARSOFT

Porteur du projet : Jean COMTET and Lydéric BOCQUET

Schools involved : ESPCI Paris - PSL, ENS - PSL, Chimie ParisTech - PSL

Project summary :

Liquids confined down to nanometric scales can show a range of exotic behaviors, with broad relevance from biology to engineering. Significant progress in our understanding have been achieved in the recent years, driven in particular by experimental efforts in the fabrication of nanofluidic devices reaching exquisite control over the degree of liquid confinement. However, transport dynamics in these sophisticated systems is still probed by macroscopic and ensemble-averaged approaches, unable to reveal in a clear and direct manner sub-continuum transport effects. In this project, we aim to bridge this gap by developing novel experimental approaches to directly visualize and quantify molecular motion in nanometrically confined liquids, focusing on polymeric liquid melts as model systems. We will achieve this aim by the combination of two complementary experimental strategies developed by the PSL partners, namely super-resolution optical microscopy for single-molecule tracking and nanochannel fabrication by Van der Waals assembly of 2D materials. This combination will allow us to address key long-standing questions associated to the role of confinement on anomalous molecular transport, dynamic heterogeneities and mobility gradients. Revealing previously invisible molecular motion, our approach will unveil a new molecular vision of nanoconfined liquid transport.