SBIR Phase I: Purification of Metallic Nitride Nanomaterials by Chemical Separation

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目将开发三金属-氮化金属模板金属富勒烯（三球），用于改进MRI造影剂。大量提供这些三metasphere材料的最大障碍是缺乏一种经济、有效的方法将这些材料从不需要的空笼C60和C70富勒烯中分离出来。为了解决这个问题，提出的努力为这些纳米材料的大规模合成和分离过程提供了创新的、巧妙的解决方案。该项目的任务是1)提高含三大气烟尘的发生器吞吐量，2)推进气相沉积技术作为净化前步骤，以及3)建立化学分离工艺的可行性，这将使大规模纳米材料生产成为可能。期望是在纯化的所有阶段完全去除HPLC。在商业上，三元球有望在以下方面找到有价值的应用：1)通过新型成像和诊断特性改善医疗保健；2)通过高通量筛选开发新药；3)通过提供更高带宽的更快的光开关和组件，更快、更高效地使用互联网；4)通过由纳米材料制成的量子计算设备，更快的计算机；新型超导体和可变电容器。

This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop trimetallic-nitride-template metallofullerenes (trimetaspheres) for use as improved MRI contrast agents. The largest barrier to providing these trimetasphere materials in significant quantities is the lack of an economical, efficient means of separating these materials from undesirable empty-cage C60 and C70 fullerenes. To address this issue, the proposed effort offers innovative, ingenious solutions to the problem of large-scale synthesis and separation processes for these nanomaterials. The project tasks are 1) to increase generator throughput of trimetasphere-containing soot, 2) to advance vapor-phase deposition techniques as a prepurification step, and 3) to establish the feasibility of a chemical-separation process, which will enable large-scale nanomaterials production. The expectation is to totally remove HPLC from all stages of purification. Commercially, trimetaspheres are expected to find valuable applications in 1) improved medical care through novel imaging and diagnostic properties, 2) new pharmaceuticals, via high throughput screening, 3) faster and more productive internet use, through faster optical switches and components that provide higher bandwidth, 4) faster computers, through quantum computing devices built from nanomaterials, and 5) military devices including sensors, imaging devices, non-linear optical devices, new superconductors and variable capacitors.