Nanofludicis: Gas and liquid flow in nanoporous media

imbibition

Relevant Publications:

Decoupling Geometry and Surface Chemistry in 3D-Printed ALD-Functionalized Porous Ceramic Channels
Antoine E Jimenez, Diego R. Gomes, Carina Hedrich, Manuel Brinker, Fortune Minna, Patrick Huber, Kaline P Furlan
ACS omega (2026)

Illustration showing an energy generation concept using liquid movement in silicon nanopores, with applications in robotics and vehicle suspension.

 

 Triboelectrification during non-wetting liquids intrusion–extrusion in hydrophobic nanoporous silicon monoliths
Luis Bartolomé, Nicola Verziaggi, Manuel Brinker, Eder Amayuelas, Sebastiano Merchori, Mesude Z Arkan, Raivis Eglītis, Andris Šutka, Mirosław Chorążewski, Patrick Huber, Simone Meloni, Yaroslav Grosu
Nano Energy, 111488 (2025)

Deformation dynamics of nanopores upon water imbibition
J Sanchez, L Dammann, L Gallardo, Z Li, M Fröba, RH Meißner, HA Stone, P. Huber
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (38), e2318386121 (2024)

 

 
Fernando Vazquez Luna, Anjani K. Maurya, Juliana Martins de Souza e Silva, Guido Dittrich, Theresa Paul, Dirk Enke, Patrick Huber, Ralf Wehrspohn, and Martin Steinhart
 
Fernando Vazquez Luna, Michael Gerstenberger, Guido Dittrich, Juliana Martins de Souza e Silva, Patrick Huber, Ralf Wehrspohn, and Martin Steinhart
 

Precursor Film Spreading during Liquid Imbibition in Nanoporous Photonic Crystals [online]
Luisa G. Cencha, Guido Dittrich, Patrick Huber, Claudio L. A. Berli, and Raul Urteaga
Physical Review Letters 125, 234502 (2020).

Nondestructive high-throughput screening of nanopore geometry in porous membranes by imbibition [online]
Luisa G. Cencha, Patrick Huber, Michael Kappl, George Floudas, Martin Steinhart, Claudio L. A. Berli, and Raul Urteaga
Applied Physics Letters 115, 113701 (2019).

Capillarity-Driven Oil Flow in Nanopores: Darcy Scale Analysis of Lucas-Washburn Imbibition Dynamics [online]
Simon Gruener and Patrick Huber
Transport in Porous Media 126, 599 (2019).

Hydraulic Transport across Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Nanopores: Experiments with Water and n-Hexane [pdf]
Simon Gruener, Dirk Wallacher, Stefanie Greulich, Mark Busch, and Patrick Huber
Physical Review E 93, 013102 (2016).

Capillary rise dynamics of liquid hydrocarbons in mesoporous silica: Nano-rheology and determination of pore size distributions from the shape of imbibition fronts
Simon Gruener, Helen E. Hermes, Burkhard Schillinger, Stefan U. Egelhaaf, and Patrick Huber
Colloids and Surfaces A 496, 13 (2016).

Soft matter in hard confinement: phase transition thermodynamics, structure, texture, diffusion and flow in nanoporous media
Patrick Huber
Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 27, 103102 (2015).

Switchable Imbibition in Nanoporous Gold
Yahui Xue, Jürgen Markmann, Huiling Duan, Jörg Weissmüller, Patrick Huber
Nature Communications 5, 4237 (2014).

Anomalous front broadening during spontaneous imbibition in a matrix with elongated pores [pdf]
Simon Gruener, Zeinab Sadjadi, Helen E. Hermes, Andriy V. Kityk, Klaus Knorr, Stefan U. Egelhaaf, Heiko Rieger, and Patrick Huber
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) 26, 10245 (2012).

Imbibition in mesoporous silica: Rheological concepts and experiments on water and a liquid crystal
Simon Grüner and Patrick Huber
Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 23, 184109 (2011).

Evidence of a Sticky Boundary Layer in Nanochannels: A Neutron Spin Echo Study of n-Hexatriacontane and Poly(ethylene oxide) Confined in Porous Silicon
André Kusmin, Simon Gruener, Anke Henschel, Nicolas de Souza, Jürgen Allgaier, Dieter Richter, and Patrick Huber
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 1, 3116 (2010).

Spontaneous Imbibition Dynamics of an n-Alkane in Nanopores: Evidence of Meniscus Freezing and Monolayer Sticking [pdf]
Simon Grüner and Patrick Huber
Physical Review Letters 103, 174501 (2009).

Capillary Rise of Water in Hydrophilic Nanopores [pdf]
Simon Grüner, Tommy Hofmann, Dirk Wallacher, Andriy Kityk and Patrick Huber
Physical Review E 79, 067301 (2009).

Knudsen Diffusion in Silicon Nanochannels
Simon Grüner and Patrick Huber
Physical Review Letters 100, 064502 (2008).

Condensed Matter in Spatially Confined Geometries: From the structural-thermodynamical state to hydrodynamic transport phenomena
Patrick Huber
Habilitation Thesis, Saarland University (2007).

Rheology of liquids in nanopores: A study on the capillary rise of water and linear alkanes
Patrick Huber, Simon Grüner, Christof Schäfer, Klaus Knorr and Andriy V. Kityk
European Physical Journal-Special Topics 141, 101 (2007).

News

  • 05.06.2026 Water, Clay and Carbon: A New Route to Sustainable Energy Storage

    🌎 Water, Clay and Carbon: A New Route to Sustainable Energy Storage - we demonstrate an all-water supercapacitor stable over 60,000 charging cycles. 

    💧⚡Can pure water store electrical energy? A research team within the Cluster of Excellence BlueMat – Water-Driven Materials has now shown that it can.

    🔋 By confining water within nanometer-sized channels in clay minerals, the team developed a supercapacitor capable of efficiently storing and transporting electrical charge with remarkable stability.

    💡 Read more in our latest press release ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dttmcBcQ

    Publication:
    Artemov, V. et al., All-water supercapacitor enabled by 1-nm clay channels, Nat Commun 17, 5014 (2026).

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73924-1

  • 23.04.2026 Lehmann Prize awarded to Patrick Huber

    🏆 Congratulations to Patrick Huber on receiving the Volker Lehmann Prize for the most outstanding talk at the 2026 Porous Semiconductors Science and Technology Conference (PSST2026) in Naples, Italy.

    💧 His presentation, “Nature’s Blueprint: Water-Enabled Functions in Hierarchically Porous Silicon,” showcased key research directions of the Cluster of Excellence BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials. 

    🏆 The Lehmann Prize honors Volker Lehmann, who—together with Leigh Canham and Ulrich Gösele - co-discovered the quantum confinement effect in silicon.

  • 22.10.2025  Water as an energy carrier: nanoporous silicon generates electricity from friction with water

    Exciting news! Our new publication in Nano Energy presents a novel way for converting mechanical energy into electricity – by harnessing water confined in nanometre-sized pores of silicon as the active working fluid (press release).

  • 29.09.2025 Colossal Effect of Nanopore Surface Ionic Charge on the Dynamics of Confined Water

    In a recent publication, we report a particularly rewarding result from a French-German collaboration linking Hamburg, Rennes, Grenoble and Paris, with key neutron scattering experiments carried out at the high-flux neutron reactor of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. 

    We show that water behaves very differently when confined to tiny nanopores—and that surface charge makes all the difference. Adding ionic charges to pore walls dramatically slows down water motion, not just in the vicinity of the pore wall but throughout the entire pore. This long-range control goes far beyond simple wetting effects and highlights surface charge as a powerful tool for using water as a nanoscale working fluid in water-driven materials, membranes, and nanotechnologies.

  • 09.09.2025 When symmetry breaks in tiny spaces

    Nanopores unlock hidden chirality in exotic liquid crystals – with the observation now made by us within an international cooperation with Ukraine, France and Poland, they might find even wider usage in energy storage or conversion or tunable lenses (see press release).