STTR Phase I: Cooperative Nanostructure Driven Self-Assembly in Carbon Nanotube/Block Co-Polymer Systems

这个小企业技术转让第一阶段项目解决了下一代膜技术商业开发的关键障碍之一，该技术利用通过碳纳米管孔的极快传输。 这些孔能够实现几乎无摩擦的流动，这可以大大降低膜阻力，并为各种基于膜的分离过程节省大量能源。 第一个碳纳米管膜是由CVD生长的纳米管阵列制成的，成本高，难以扩大规模。 这个第一阶段项目的目标是展示在高负荷下组装散装单壁碳纳米管-聚合物复合材料，并建立对这些过程的热力学和动力学的理解。 另一个目标是开发一种策略，这个过程的可扩展性，以及确定的主要参数，控制所得到的对齐的纳米复合材料的质量。 膜分离技术是现代经济的基石之一，这个每年120亿美元的市场一直以超过9%的年增长率增长。 膜对于全球社会和人道主义问题也至关重要，例如清洁水的可用性（世界上六分之一的人无法获得清洁水，水资源短缺是美国西部日益严重的问题）。 特别是，小孔膜可以实现反渗透过程，这是海水淡化的最节能途径，可以利用海洋中丰富的水资源。 开发用于将小孔碳纳米管排列成膜的可扩展过程将产生渗透率比当前RO膜高100倍的膜，并且将代表RO膜市场的范式转变。 该工艺的商业化可能使RO脱盐水的成本与当前的市政用水成本保持一致，从而为美国和全球人口提供几乎取之不尽的水源。 该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project addresses one of the key barriers for commercial development of the next generation membrane technologies that exploit extremely fast transport through the carbon nanotube pores. These pores enable nearly frictionless flow that could drastically lower membrane resistance and produce in significant energy savings for a wide range of membrane-based separation processes. The first carbon nanotube membranes were made from aligned CVD-grown nanotube arrays that are costly and hard to scale up. The objective of this Phase I project is to demonstrate assembly of bulk single wall carbon nanotube-polymer composites at high loadings and establish understanding of the thermodynamics and kinetics of these processes. Another objective is to develop a strategy for scalability of this process as well as identify the main parameters that control the quality of the resulting aligned nanocomposites. Membrane separation technologies are one of the cornerstones of modern economy, and this $12B/year market has been growing at an annual rate exceeding 9%. Membranes are also critically important for global societal and humanitarian problems, such as availability of clean water (one of 6 people in the world lacks access to clean water and water shortage is a growing problem in the Western US). In particular, small-pore membranes enable reverse-osmosis processes that are the most energy-efficient route for seawater desalination that could tap into plentiful water resources available in the ocean. Development of a scalable process for aligning small-pore carbon nanotubes into a membrane would produce membranes with permeability of up to 100 times higher than current RO membranes, and would represent a paradigm shift for the RO membrane market. Commercialization of this process could potentially make RO desalinated water costs in line with the current municipal water costs, and thus unlock an almost inexhaustible water source for the US and global population. This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).