U.S.-Korea Cooperative Research: Non-Circular Mesoporous Carbon Fibers for the Absorption of Toxins

该奖项支持继续开展合作活动，为克莱姆森大学高级工程纤维和薄膜中心正在进行的研究提供国际维度，该中心是由美国国家科学基金会资助的工程研究中心。美国首席研究员是该中心主任Dan Edie教授。合作伙伴是韩国忠南大学新材料大学产业联合研究所的教授承柳（音译）。该研究组是国内领先的碳材料研究组，在国际上享有很高的声誉。美国中心长期以来一直是美国领先的碳纤维研究小组，他们之前的成功合作导致了生产含中孔活性炭纤维的实用方法。这些在工业吸附过程中具有很大的前景。合作小组现在将制造不同孔径和不同粒径金属夹杂物的中孔纤维过滤器，然后在关键的消费和国防应用中测试和比较新型活性纤维。这项研究将需要许多步骤，从生产沥青前体（韩国特产）开始，两个小组的不同专业知识和资源将使他们能够以高效的方式分担这项工作的责任。为了对两组参与的学生的教育价值，一些研究步骤将并行进行。这项研究项目的广泛影响是工业、环境和教育。活性炭纤维吸附率高，易于合成，用途广泛。然而，目前使用的那些几乎完全包含微孔（直径小于2纳米），这使得它们无法捕获大分子化学物质，如杀虫剂或硝酸盐和硫酸盐。此外，它们的密度会导致迅速堵塞，因此需要频繁更换。这项合作研究涉及一种新型过滤器，具有更大的，相互连接的“介孔”（直径2至50纳米），为更广泛的应用提供了各种改进的特性。这些措施包括去除水中的余氯、杀虫剂和空气中的其他毒素，以及减少工业过程中各种污染物逃逸到环境中。最后，该联合项目将为克莱姆森大学的五名美国本科生和研究生提供在韩国的国际研究经验，同时通过韩国研究生和博士后的长期访问，继续使美国中心的所有研究人员和学生受益。

0323859EdieThis award supports continuation of cooperative activities that provide an international dimension to the ongoing research at the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films at Clemson University, an Engineering Research Center funded by NSF. The US principal investigator is the Center Director, Professor Dan Edie. The collaborating partner is Professor Seung Ryu, who directs a research group at the University Industry Joint Institute for New Materials at Chungnam National University in Taejon, Korea. This group is the leading carbon materials research group in Korea and is highly regarded internationally. The US center has a longstanding reputation as the leading carbon fiber research group in the U.S. Their successful prior collaboration resulted in practical methods for producing mesopore-containing activated carbon fibers. These hold great promise in industrial adsorption processes. The collaborating groups now will create mesopore fiber filters of different pore sizes and with metallic inclusions of different particle size, then test and compare the new class of activated fibers in critical consumer and defense applications. This research will require many steps, beginning with production of the pitch precursor (a Korean specialty), and the diverse expertise and resources of the two groups will enable them to share the responsibilities for this work in a highly efficient way. Some of the research steps will be carried out in parallel for the educational value to the participating students in the two groups. The broader impacts of this research project are industrial, environmental and educational. Activated carbon fibers have high adsorption rates, are easy to synthesize and have a wide variety of uses. However those currently in use contain almost entirely micropores (less than 2 nm in diameter) which makes them useless for trapping large molecular chemicals such as pesticides or nitrates and sulfates. Furthermore, their density can lead to becoming plugged up quickly, making frequent replacement necessary. This collaborative research involves a new class of filters with larger, interconnecting "mesopores" (2 to 50 nm in diameter) that offer a variety of improved characteristics for wider applications. These include removing residual chlorine from water, pesticides and other toxins from air, and reducing the escape into the environment of various contaminants from industrial processes. Finally, the joint project will provide international research experience in Korea to five US undergraduate and graduate students from Clemson University, while continuing to benefit all the researchers and students at the US Center through extended visits by Korean graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.