Atomistic Simulation of Nanostructured Materials

ChEMS Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Muhammad Sahimi

Department Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

University of Southern California







Nanostructured materials, such as nanotubes, nanoporous membranes (both

synthetic and biological), and nanocomposites are of much current

interest, due to the scientific challenges that they pose, as well as

their applications. Understanding the properties of such materials and the

phenomena that can occur in them requires atomistic-scale modeling, which

entails molecular dynamics simulation. Such simulations require accurate

force fields that describe the interactions between the various atoms in

the materials, as well as between them and the molecules that pass through

the materials. We describe recent advances in this active area of

research, including development of force fields that can even describe

chemical reactions that occur between atoms. Examples that will be

described include transport of mixtures through silicon-carbide and carbon

nanotubes, polymer composites, and membranes, as well as pyrolysis and

degradation of polymeric materials.



Biosketch:

Dr. Sahimi is a Professor of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science

and the NIOC Chair in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Southern

California. He received his B.S. from the University of Tehran, Iran, in

1977, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in

1984, both in chemical engineering, and has been a faculty member at

USC since 1984, where he was the Chair of his department from 1999-2005.

His research interests include flow, transport, and mechanical

properties of porous materials, such as membranbes, adsorbents,

and nanotubes, large-scale scientific computations, and stochastic

processes. In addition to teaching and research awards from USC, he

has received awards from the Humboldt foundation, the American Physical

Society, and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He has published

over 320 papers and 4 books.