MRI: Collaborative Facility for Research on Aerogel Materials

该奖项将加强跨学科合作设施，气凝胶制造，表征和应用实验室（AFCAL），为联合学院机械工程和化学系的教职员工和学生研究人员提供服务。气凝胶是一类陶瓷材料，由溶胶-凝胶过程制成，然后仔细控制溶剂的排出。这种制造方法产生了多孔纳米结构，其体积约为90-99%的空气，孔径主要在2至50纳米范围内。这种孔隙结构使气凝胶具有已知固体材料中最低的密度、折射率、热导率、电导率和声导率。在联合学院，pi和他们的本科生开发了一种新的快速超临界萃取（RSCE）工艺，该工艺利用液压热压机制造气凝胶单体。使用基于四甲基硅酸盐的配方，我们制造了尺寸为51 x 51 x 13 mm的硅胶气凝胶单体。这些气凝胶的体积密度低至0.066 g/cm3，表面积高达800 m2/g，热导率在30-40 mW/mK范围内，并且在可见光范围内透射20%至90%的光。改进后的AFCAL设备将供机械工程和化学系的教师和学生使用：(1)研究RSCE工艺和工艺变量对气凝胶材料性能的影响；(2)考察化学试剂对气凝胶材料性能的影响；(3)建立气凝胶力学性能模型并进行表征；(4)制备掺杂发光传感器的气凝胶，用于气凝胶结构的基础光谱研究和化学传感器；(5)确定扩大RSCE工艺规模以生产更多气凝胶材料所需的条件，并解决任何安全问题；(6)研究这些材料的其他应用领域。我们将购买一台自动化压力和温度控制的液压机，两个临界点干燥系统；表征气凝胶的设备包括高通量三站物理吸附分析仪和材料测试系统，这将使我们能够扩展我们测量气凝胶材料机械性能的能力。扩大仪器能力将使我们能够继续成功地利用AFCAL实验室作为基础跨学科研究的工具。此外，它将促进与来自联合大学和其他学术机构以及工业界的其他同事的合作。联合学院最近通过批准一项名为“融合技术”（CT）的新跨学科计划，加强了其对技术和工程的长期承诺。CT计划的目标是将来自工程和文科的学生和教师聚集在一起，研究在传统学科交叉领域出现的问题。这将使学生在毕业时拥有超出专业范围的广泛背景。这是在保持我们对科学和工程基础的承诺的同时，在我们的文科传统的背景下-教学在小班和实验室中进行，教师和学生密切互动，本科生研究受到重视，鼓励跨学科工作。这个项目涉及两个传统学科的合并。一个在科学领域，一个在工程领域——并将有助于我们的CT对纳米技术的关注。联合学院化学系和机械工程系在引导学生在其学术生涯形成阶段进行研究，为学生提供为研究生学习成功提供必要背景的课程，并将这些学生成功地安置在研究生课程和工业职位方面具有卓越的历史。因此，这些部门对这个国家的科学基础设施产生了影响。目前，已有39名机械工程、化学和生物化学专业的本科生与该实验室合作进行了气凝胶相关的研究。这些学生中有18名是女性，其中两名是代表性不足的少数群体的成员；其中6人是国际学生。毕业论文的学生中有80%进入了工程或化学相关领域的全日制研究生院。该奖项的pi将继续让本科生参与他们的研究，包括来自传统上代表性不足的群体的学生，并鼓励他们的学生考虑在工程和科学相关领域进行研究生学习，并以研究为职业。

This award will enhance an interdisciplinary collaborative facility, the Aerogel Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications Lab (AFCAL), for faculty and student researchers in the Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry Departments at Union College. Aerogels are a class of ceramic materials fab-ricated from a sol-gel procedure followed by a carefully controlled solvent evacuation. This fabrication results in a porous nanostructure that is approximately 90-99% air by volume, with pore sizes primarily in the 2 to 50 nm range. This pore structure gives aerogels the lowest known density, index of refraction, thermal, electrical, and acoustical conductivities of any solid material. At Union College, the PIs and their undergraduate students have developed a new rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) process, which utilizes a hydraulic hot press to fabricate aerogel monoliths. Using tetramethylorthosilicate-based recipes, we have fabricated silica aerogel monoliths as large as 51 x 51 x 13 mm in size. These aerogels have bulk densities as low as 0.066 g/cm3, surface areas as high as 800 m2/g, thermal conductivities in the 30-40 mW/mK range and they transmit 20 to 90% of the light in the visible range. The enhanced AFCAL facility will be used by faculty and students in the Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry departments to: (1) study the RSCE process and the effect of processing variables on aerogel material properties; (2) examine the effects of chemical reagents on the aerogel material proper-ties; (3) model and characterize the aerogel mechanical properties; (4) prepare aerogels doped with luminescent sensors to be used in fundamental spectroscopic studies of aerogel structure and as chemical sensors; (5) determine what is necessary to scale up the RSCE process to make larger amounts of aerogel material and address any safety issues; and (6) investigate additional application areas for these materials. We will purchase an automated pressure and temperature controlled hydraulic press, two critical point drying systems; and equipment to characterize the aerogels including a high-throughput three station physical adsorption analyzer and a materials testing system which will allow us to expand our capabilities to measure the mechanical properties of the aerogel material. Expanding the instrumental ability will allow us to continue our successful efforts in using the AFCAL laboratory as a vehicle for fundamental interdisciplinary research. Moreover, it will facilitate collaboration with additional colleagues from Union and other academic institutions and from industry. Union College recently enhanced its long-standing commitment to technology and engineering by approving a new interdisciplinary initiative called Converging Technologies (CT). The goal of the CT initiative is to bring together students and faculty from engineering and the liberal arts to examine problems that occur at the intersections of traditional disciplines. This will enable students to graduate with a broad background that goes beyond that provided by their major. This is being done while maintaining our commitment to science and engineering fundamentals, and in the context of our liberal arts tradition - teaching occurs in small classes and laboratories, teachers and students interact closely, undergraduate research is prized, and interdisciplinary work is encouraged. This project involves the merging of two traditional disciplines ? one in the sciences and one in engineering - and will contribute to our CT focus on nanotechnology. The Union College Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering Departments have a demonstrated history of excellence in introducing students to research at a formative stage of their academic careers, providing students with coursework that provides the necessary background for success in graduate studies, and placing these students successfully in graduate programs and industrial positions. As a result, these departments have had an impact on the scientific infrastructure of this nation. Already, 39 undergraduate students in mechanical engineering, chemistry, and biochemistry have performed aerogel related research in association with the lab. Eighteen of these students are women, two of whom are members of underrepresented minority groups; six of the men are international students. Eighty percent of the senior thesis students have gone on to full-time graduate school in engineering- or chemistry-related fields. The PIs on this award will continue to involve undergraduate students in their research, including students from traditionally underrepresented groups, and to encourage their students to consider graduate studies in engineering- and science-related fields and careers in research.