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 122 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

- Fernández de Labastida M, Yaroshchuk A, Licon Bernal EE & Bondarenko M 2018, 'Rotating disk-like membrane cell for pressure-driven measurements with equally-accessible membrane surface: numerical simulation and experimental validation', J.Membr.Sci., 550, 492-501.

- López J, Reig M, Yaroshchuk A, Licon Bernal EE,  Gibert O & Cortina JL 2018, 'Experimental and theoretical study of nanofiltration of weak electrolytes: SO42-/HSO4-/H+ system', J.Membr.Sci., 550, 389-398.

- Yaroshchuk A & Bondarenko MP 2018, 'Current-induced concentration polarization of nano-porous media: role of electroosmosis', Small, 1703723.

- Yang L, Tang C, Ahmad M, Yaroshchuk A & Bruening ML 2018, 'High Selectivities among Monovalent Cations in Dialysis through Cation-Exchange Membranes Coated with Polyelectrolyte Multilayers', ACS Appl. Materials & Interfaces, 10 (50), 44134–44143.


Selected research activities

Co-organizer of session "Electro-membrane Processes" of 2018 Annual Meeting of North American Membrane Society (NAMS), June 10-13, 2018, Lexington, KY, USA

Visiting professor at Depatment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, USA, May-June 2018