The work involves the manipulation of fluid and species transport using gradients in electrical potential, temperature and solute concentration. Application of electrohydrodynamic phenomena such as electroosmosis and electrokinetic instabilities for transport enhancement are primarily being investigated, and these can be aided by temperature and concentration gradients. The control of transport phenomena by these external fields is studies subsequently.

Our special interest is in the effect of heterogeneous surfaces on the transport phenomena and the ability to manipulate fluid flows and solvent transport using these heterogeneities at the microscale to increase the efficiency at the macroscale. Examples of applications are in increasing mass transfer for catalytic reactions and CO2 capture using solid sorbents.

The transport of droplets and particles is of significant importance in water treatment, drug delivery and environmental remediation. Transport of these colloids in fields of concentration and temperature gradients can be used in biological environments, while applying electric fields to drive flow has applications in water treatment and the process industry.

Using microfluidic experiments, we visualize the phoretic transport at the pore scale in both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluids under the influence of different externally applied fields. The microfluidic devices are developed in-house in collaboration with NanoFab at the University of Alberta. Different visualization techniques, including Fluorescence Microsopy, Particle Tracking and Fluoresence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy are available in our lab to both qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the phoretic transport phenomena.

Additionally, we work on theoretical and numerical models to describe the phoretic transport in these systems.

Salt and hydrocarbon contamination in soil is a significant problem in hydrocarbon recovery methods and impacted sites should be remediated for further use. In our group, we investigate the potential of using electrokinetic methods, based on closely spaced electrodes, to remove salt from soil. Pore scale modeling is done to understand the remediation process at the pore-level, while experimental research focuses on the development of optimized electrode geometries and materials for field applications. Bench scale testing is combined with a PNP modeling approach, to systematically investigate optimal remediation strategies for different contaminations and levels of contamination.