AIChE Published ECUST Research Progress of ALD Multi-scale Simulation of Atomic Layer Deposition

Recently, Dr. Zhuang Liwei, a young teacher of the functional membrane and electronic chemicals team of the School of Chemical Engineering of our university, cooperated with Johns Hopkins University and North Carolina State University, etc., and developed a set of numerical models for thin film deposition in the nano-channels of porous materials by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology, which can be used to predict the dynamic process of precursor diffusion, adsorption, desorption, deposition reaction, and channel shrinkage to blockage in 2-5 nm channels. The research article titled “Modeling of deposit formation in mesoporous substrates via atomic layer deposition: insights from pore-scale simulation” was published in AIChE Journal, the journal of American society of chemical engineers.

The co-first authors of the above research are Gu Hao (tutor: Professor Xu Zhenliang), a master candidate of the School of Chemical Engineering, ECUST, and Dr Dennis T. Lee and Dr Peter Corkery of Johns Hopkins University. The corresponding authors are Dr Zhuang Liwei, a young teacher of the School of Chemical Engineering, ECUST, and Professor Michael Tsapatsis, an academician of the American Academy of Engineering. The simulation research was guided by Professor Yannis Kevrekidis, academician of American Academy of Engineering. The ALD-QCM experiment was assisted by Professor Gregory Parsons, a famous scholar in ALD field, and his team. Professor Xu Zhenliang and Professor Dai Gance from the School of Chemical Engineering ECUST provided great guidance and help. The research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the U.S. Department of Energy.