SBIR Phase I: Innovations in Nanoscale Manufacturing: Assembly of Nanomaterial Components via Electrostatic Forces and Production of Composites for Bio-Medical Implants.

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发纳米制造方法，用于生产用于生物医学植入物的金属氧化物复合材料。均匀的混合金属氧化物复合材料极难通过现有方法制备，并且尽管具有很大的实用性，但由于成本限制，混合氧化物在生物医学以外的市场中的应用有限。 我们已经获得了初步数据，证明了一种新的，高效和低成本的方法来制造这些材料，使用精确的流量和混合控制，以组装纳米级混合氧化物的各个成分。 该方法利用廉价的纳米材料成分（例如，胶体），其容易获得。 该过程产生复杂的“核-壳”纳米材料，然后进一步加工以产生具有大大增加的功能的混合氧化物。 我们预计这些材料将表现出不透射线性（辅助诊断能力）和生物活性（用于更好的植入物整合）的商业重要特性。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提供更好地融入人体的生物医学植入物，加速愈合过程，提高耐用性，延长使用寿命并辅助诊断。 这将最终降低翻修手术率并改善患者结局。 与现有的制造方法相比，该工艺具有许多显著的优点，包括增加的功能性、显著提高的产品产量（导致更低的成本）和显著提高的性能。 该工艺提供了优于现有材料的显著制造成本优势，并且可以进一步利用该工艺将市场机会扩展到成本限制限制采用先进复合材料的相邻细分市场。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to develop nanomanufacturing methods for producing metal-oxide composites for biomedical implants. Homogeneous, mixed metal-oxide composites are extremely difficult to prepare by existing processes, and although of great utility, mixed-oxides have found limited applications in markets outside of biomedicine due to cost constraints. We have obtained preliminary data demonstrating a new, highly-efficient and low-cost approach to the manufacture of these materials which uses precise flow and mixing control to assemble the individual components of the mixed-oxides at the nanoscale. The process utilizes inexpensive nanomaterial components (e.g., colloids) that are readily available. The process produces complex "core-shell" nanomaterials that are then further processed to produce a mixed-oxide with greatly increased functionality. We anticipate that these materials will exhibit the commercially important properties of radiopacity (aiding diagnostic capabilities) and bioactivity (for better implant integration).The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to provide bio-medical implants that better integrate into the human body, speed the healing process, improve durability, extend the use-life and aid diagnosis. This will ultimately reduce the rate of revision surgery and improve patient outcomes. The process has many significant advantages over existing methods of manufacturing, including increased functionality, dramatically improved product yield (leading to lower cost), and significantly improved performance. This process provides a significant manufacturing cost advantage over existing materials and can be further leveraged to expand market opportunities into adjacent segments where cost constraints have limited the adoption of advanced composites.