Understanding the Relationship Between Processing and Performance for Functional Materials

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The research objective of this award is to gain a fundamental understanding of the manufacturing process of thin-film coatings and address a range of issues that impact their performance. The challenge of flexibly fabricating uniform defect-free functional materials for applications such as bioengineering, apparels, electronics, energy and so forth is not trivial, due to the interfacial phenomena between the material and coated solution. This project will address the relationship between processing and performance for complex polymer solutions directly coated onto woven structures through a synergistic mix of experimentation, modeling and performance testing. The flexibility and repeatability of the manufacturing process will be analyzed based on changing the processing conditions (i.e., temperature, velocity, casting thickness, etc.), using design of experiments (DOEs), and evaluated using destructive and non-destructive evaluation techniques. A theoretical model that predicts the required operating conditions to fabricate uniform defect-free carbon woven structures CWSs will be developed based on fundamental principles and validated against data collected from the DOE. Finally, performance analysis will be conducted to evaluate the film properties of the resulting functional material.Successful completion of this research will fundamentally broaden the knowledge base on how functional coated woven structures are fabricated in a uniform, defect-free manner. Although this work is applicable to many areas, due to the advancements needed in the renewable energy area, this project will focus on understanding the mechanisms that prohibit direct coating of polymer solutions onto functional materials, such as gas diffusion layers for fuel cell applications. Success of this investigation will present an approach to fabricate such functional materials more flexibly, with increased production rates, decreased waste, and using a more robust process, which will have an exponential economical impact, due to their use in transportation, stationary, and portable devices. To broaden the participation of underrepresented groups at minority and primary institutions not traditionally exposed to research, Dr. Harris has co-developed a program called ELECTRoDE: Educators Leading Energy Conservation and Training Researchers of Diverse Ethnicities.