SBIR Phase II: Process Control Sensor for Fine Particles

SBIR 第二阶段：细颗粒过程控制传感器

• 批准号: 0848572
• 负责人: Craig Saltiel
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Scattering Solutions
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-03-15 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0848572&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Process; Control

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II research project proposes to develop Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) instruments capable of measuring fine particles in suspensions beyond the limits of current technology. By simultaneous or independent use of three innovative techniques, larger detection aperture, smaller field size, and optical, homodyne amplification, the team can now measure hydrodynamic radius over greater ranges of particle size and concentration than was formerly possible. Two key ideas for this effort are: 1) the construction of a numerical model of the complex phenomenology of DLS with eight free and independent parameters; 2) the ability to apply this new understanding to the quantitative analysis of existing instruments, and to optimize new system designs for extended applications. These ideas have been confirmed empirically, correctly defining operational boundaries, formerly less well understood and quantified. A key advantage is the ability to design DLS systems with superior ranges of performance, versatility, accuracy, and cost, noting especially that deeper understanding improves performance and reduces error limits of reported data. Newly capable and economical instruments are made available for characterizing suspended colloidal particles, from sub-nanometer to micron radii and from almost opaque to almost completely transparent. Extended capabilities include process control of high concentration colloidal materials, common in manufacturing from paint to chemical machining slurries, from foodstuff to pharmaceuticals. At the opposite end of the spectrum of difficultly lie suspensions scattering very little light, such as proteinaceous drugs, fuel cell catalysts, and many other materials of great interest to in-vivo non-invasive measurement of small sample volumes. Aside from a ready market in both real time monitoring and offline analysis for quality control in existing industrial processes, the extended capabilities offer attractive research opportunities into the properties of nanomaterials, a burgeoning field of interest and importance. Such instruments and their enhanced capability will increase materials research opportunities and be economical enough to use in a teaching environment, significantly augmenting the many and complex technologies already used for the assessment of these important materials. In contrast with more invasive measurements that may require dilution or evaporation for sample preparation irrevocably altering what is to be measured, extended DLS techniques complement and may be applied to undisturbed samples as small as a picoliter.

这项小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段研究项目建议开发动态光散射(DLS)仪器，能够测量悬浮液中的细颗粒，超出当前技术的限制。通过同时或独立使用三种创新技术，即更大的探测孔径、更小的场大小和光学零差放大，该团队现在可以在比以前更大的颗粒尺寸和浓度范围内测量流体动力学半径。这项工作的两个关键想法是：1)建立具有8个自由和独立参数的DLS复杂现象学的数字模型；2)将这一新的理解应用于现有仪器的定量分析，并为更广泛的应用优化新的系统设计。这些想法已经得到了经验的证实，正确地界定了以前不太容易理解和量化的业务边界。一个关键优势是能够设计具有卓越性能、通用性、准确性和成本范围的DLS系统，特别要注意的是，更深入的理解可以提高性能并降低报告数据的误差限制。新的功能和经济的仪器可用于表征悬浮胶体颗粒，从亚纳米到微米半径，从几乎不透明到几乎完全透明。扩展的能力包括对高浓度胶体材料的过程控制，从油漆到化学机械加工泥浆，从食品到制药，这些材料在制造中很常见。在光谱的另一端难以弥散的悬浮液散射的光线非常少，如蛋白质类药物、燃料电池催化剂等许多其他材料对体内小样本体积的非侵入性测量非常感兴趣。除了在现有工业过程中为质量控制提供实时监测和离线分析的现成市场外，扩展的能力还为纳米材料的性质提供了有吸引力的研究机会，纳米材料是一个新兴的感兴趣和重要的领域。这些仪器及其增强的能力将增加材料研究的机会，并足够经济地在教学环境中使用，大大增强已用于评估这些重要材料的许多复杂技术。更具侵入性的测量可能需要稀释或蒸发以制备样品，不可挽回地改变要测量的内容，与之相比，扩展的DLS技术补充并可能应用于小至皮升的未受干扰的样品。