SGER: Nanofabrication of Multiferroic Composites

技术：该项目将开发一种使用纳米压印光刻(NIL)的新型多铁复合材料加工技术，该技术将比任何其他传统的纳米复合材料加工技术更精确地控制聚合物基质中第二相填料的尺寸、形态和分布，从而可能导致具有优化设计和显著增强的磁电性能的多铁复合材料。为了充分发挥其技术潜力，多铁性材料，特别是多铁性复合材料，必须表现出高的磁电耦合系数。要做到这一点，就必须对多铁复合材料的微观组织进行精确的控制，而这对于传统的复合材料加工技术来说是非常困难的。本项目的目标是探索基于零电流的新的加工技术，以设计出具有最佳磁电性能的多铁性复合材料的纳米结构。这一探索性项目的目标是设计TbDyFe-PVDF多铁性复合材料的纳米结构，使用基于零电流的技术来显著增强磁电性能。特别是，PI致力于实现以下目标：(1)探索基于NIL的新型纳米复合材料加工技术，以精确控制TbDyFe在PVDF基质中的尺寸、形态和分布；(2)在我们的理论建模和模拟的指导下，制备具有优化设计的填料尺寸、形态和分布的TbDyFe-PVDF多铁复合材料，以显著提高磁电系数；以及(3)表征TbDyFe-PVDF多铁复合材料的结构和功能性能，并验证PI的理论建模和模拟。这项研究具有探索性的性质，原因如下：(1)这是关于新想法的初步工作，因为在PI的最佳知识范围内，使用NIL技术的纳米复合材料的加工尚未经过测试；(2)它探索了新兴的、潜在的变革性研究思路，即NIL，并将其扩展到纳米复合材料的加工。由于这种探索性的性质，这项研究涉及高风险，特别是在将聚合物薄膜的零离子注入与传统的金属薄膜沉积技术(如溅射)相结合方面。另一方面，它也提供了巨大的潜力。如果成功，所提出的技术将使我们能够精确地控制第二相填料在聚合物基质中的尺寸、形态和分布，从而可能导致具有优化设计的纳米结构和显著提高磁电系数的多铁性复合材料。非技术性：多铁性磁电材料同时显示磁和电有序，原则上允许存储在磁场和电场中的能量相互转换。这种额外的自由度可能会导致探测材料的新方法，并可能导致包括换能器、致动器、传感器和存储设备在内的新型设备的设计。基于这项工作的努力不仅可能在加工多铁复合材料方面催化快速和创新的进展，而且在使用近离子液体技术加工其他纳米复合材料方面也可能催化快速和创新的进展。该项目的更广泛影响还包括对研究生的培训，以及多元铁基复合材料的潜在应用。这也可能引领其他聚合物基纳米复合材料的创新加工技术。

TECHNICAL: This project will develop a novel processing technique for multiferroic composites using nanoimprinting lithography (NIL), which would allow much more precise control over the size, morphology, and distribution of second-phase fillers in polymer matrix than any other conventional nanocomposite processing techniques, and thus may lead to multiferroic composites with optimally designed and dramatically enhanced magnetoelectric properties. For their technological potential to be fully realized, the multiferroic materials, especially multiferroic composites, must demonstrate high magnetoelectric coupling factor. To accomplish this, it is essential to control the microstructure of multiferroic composites precisely, which is very difficult for traditional composite processing techniques. It is the objective of this project to explore new processing technique based on NIL to engineer the nanostructures of multiferroic composites for optimized magnetoelectric properties. The goal of this exploratory project is to engineer nanostructures of TbDyFe-PVDF multiferroic composites using NIL based technique for dramatically enhanced magnetoelectric properties. In particular, PI seeks to accomplish the following objectives: (1) Exploring a novel nanocomposite processing technique based on NIL to precisely control the size, morphology, and distributions of TbDyFe fillers in PVDF matrix; (2) Fabricating TbDyFe-PVDF multiferroic composites with optimally designed fillers size, morphology, and distribution for dramatically enhanced magnetoelectric coefficient, guided by our theoretical modeling and simulations; and (3) Characterizing the structures and functional properties of the TbDyFe-PVDF multiferroic composites, and validating PI's theoretical modeling and simulations. The research is exploratory in nature for the following reasons: (1) it is preliminary work on novel ideas, since processing of nanocomposites using NIL based technique is untested to the best knowledge of the PI; and (2) it ventures into emerging and potentially transformative research ideas, namely NIL, and extends it to processing of nanocomposites. Due to this exploratory nature, the research involves high risk, especially in the integration of NIL of polymer films with traditional thin film deposition techniques for metals, such as sputtering. On the other hand, it also offers huge potential. If successful, the proposed technique will allow us to precisely control the size, morphology, and distributions of second-phase fillers in the polymer matrix, and thus could lead to multiferroic composites with optimally designed nanostructures and dramatically enhanced magnetoelectric coefficient. NON-TECHNICAL: Multiferroic magnetoelectric materials display both magnetic and electric ordering, which in principle allows the interconversion of energies stored in magnetic and electric fields. This additional degree of freedom may result in new methods to probe materials, and may lead to design of novel devices including transducers, actuators, sensors, and storage devices. Efforts based on this work are likely to catalyze rapid and innovative advances not only in processing multiferroic composites, but also in processing other nanocomposites using NIL based techniques. The broader impacts in this project also include training for graduate student, and the potential applications of multiferroic composites. It may also lead innovate processing techniques for other polymer based nanocomposites.