GOALI: Nanomanufactured Flexible Chemical Sensors: Collaborative Investigation of Nanotructural Properties in Relation to Device Flexibility

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This Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award provides funding for the development of a nano-manufacturing process on flexible devices. The development of this process will couple Roll-to-Roll (R2R) manufacturing process with molecularly-engineered nanoparticle thin film transfer technology to produce flexible chemical sensor arrays. The process parameters controlling the chemical and physical properties associated with the nanostructured flexible devices, and the factors controlling the interfacial interactions between the nanostructured thin films and the flexible substrates will be determined. An effective processing route for transferring nanoparticle-structured thin films onto flexible array devices with controllable adhesions, address precision, and interparticle spatial properties will be demonstrated. The electrical properties of the nanostructured flexible devices under various structural, mechanical, flexibility, and environmental manipulations will be characterized. The sensor response characteristics of an integrated flexible sensor array system will be evaluated in terms of performance and reliability for the detection of VOCs. If successful, the results will lead to advancement in understanding the design criteria between nanostructure engineering and large-scale R2R manufacturing for producing nanostructured flexible devices. The primary goal of this work is to establish the correlation between the device electrical properties and the flexibility parameters under various environmental conditions in the fundamental front, and demonstrate the nano-manufacturing process for transferring molecularly-engineered nanoparticle thin films onto flexible sensor array devices in the application front. The accomplishment of this goal will help achieve low-cost and scale-up integration of nanostructured materials and flexible functional devices. The capability of the nanostructured flexible chemical sensor arrays for reliable and multiplexing detection of VOCs and toxic gases will benefit the society in addressing the increasing environmental concerns over air pollution and quality.