Andriy Yaroshchuk

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Born on 7 March 1959 in Kiev, Ukraine. Candidate of Sciences (equivalent to PhD) in Colloid Chemistry, A.V. Dumanskiy Institute of Colloid and Water Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, 1983. Doctor of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics, Institute of Physical Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1992. ICREA Research Professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, since 2007. Invited researcher/professor at Karl-Franzens Universität, Graz, Austria; École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie et de Physique de Bordeaux (France); École Supérieure Chimie Physique Electronique de Lyon (France); Universität Duisburg - Essen (Germany); Paul-Scherrer-Institute (Switzerland), etc. Member of Editorial Board of Desalination and Water Treatment (Taylor & Francis UK). Published 118 papers on theoretical and experimental studies of membranes, colloids, porous media and micro-/nano-fluidic systems.


Research interests

The keyword is behaviour of fluids at nano-scale. I study the transfer of ions and water molecules through nano-metric (tens of nanometers) barrier layers of composite nanofiltration membranes. Another example is the transfer of ions and water through nano-porous track-etched membranes having identical cylindrical pores. I also study processes of current-induced concentration polarization of nano-/micro-interfaces where concentration polarization is strongly-coupled to electroosmosis and fine separation of solutes like peptides can occur. Recently, I discovered that a layered structure consisting of a micro-perforated ion-exchange membrane and a nanoporous layer can have very interesting properties useful for AC electroosmotic pumping . Another topic is experimental and theoretical studies of ion transfer across polyelectrolyte multilayers where we have recently discovered very high (>1000) selectivities in the electrically-driven transfer of ions of different charge magnitudes.

Selected publications

- Yaroshchuk A & Bruening ML 2017, 'An Analytical Solution of the Solution-Diffusion-Electromigration Equations Reproduces Trends in Ion Rejections during Nanofiltration of Mixed Electrolytes', J. Membr. Sci., 523, 361-372.

- Yaroshchuk A, Licón EE, Zholkovskiy EK, Bondarenko MP & Heldal T 2017 'Asymmetric electroosmotic pumping across porous media sandwiched with perforated ion-exchange membranes', Faraday Discussions, 199, 175-193.

- Yaroshchuk A 2017, '“Breakthrough” osmosis and unusually high power densities in Pressure-Retarded Osmosis in non-ideally semi-permeable supported membranes', Scientific Reports, 7, 45168.

- Zhu Y, Ahmad M, Misovich M, Yang L, Yaroshchuk A & Bruening ML 2017, 'Adsorption of polyelectrolyte multilayers imparts high monovalent/divalent cation selectivity to aliphatic polyamide cation-exchange membranes', J. Membr. Sci., 537, 177-185.


Selected research activities

International patent (PCT) "Layered Electroosmotic Structure" filed in cooperation with Osmotex AG (Switzerland)

Presentation "Asymmetric electroosmotic pumping across porous media sandwiched with perforated ion-exchange membranes" delivered at Faraday Discussion "Chemical Physics of Electroactive Materials" held in Cambrige, UK, April 10-12, 2017

Diploma of Doctoral School of Polytechnic University of Catalonia (BarcelonaTech) for supervising a doctoral thesis defended in the 2014-2015 academic year and awarded a Special Doctoral Award

Invited lecture "Energy harvesting by Reverse Electrodialysis: What membrane properties are important and how can we get to them?" delivered at Imagine Membrane - A Patrick Meares Conference, Horta, Portugal, September 24-29, 2017