SBIR Phase I: Innovations in Nanowire Manufacturing: Large Scale Synthesis of Inorganic Semiconducting Nanowires and Application to Printed Electronics

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发大规模制造无机半导体纳米线的方法，特别是CdSe纳米线。将设计和建造一个自动化的中试反应堆，以降低材料成本并提高合成的稳健性，从而使纳米线的生产规模扩大到多克规模。得到的纳米线将被整合到印刷/柔性电子产品的功能墨水中。作为演示，我们将生产一个印刷光传感器的原型。该演示设备将验证无机半导体纳米线可以使用标准塑料衬底和商业印刷方法整合到柔性/印刷电子设备中。坚固耐用的纳米油墨的生产将使其能够很容易地融入当前的商业印刷电子制造流程。虽然材料和设备的表征将涉及各种技术(包括电子显微镜)，但该项目还将专注于通过简单的光学计量技术(如紫外可见光谱)对材料进行验证，这些技术可以被并入，用于大规模制造纳米材料、纳米墨水和印刷基板。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是为印刷和柔性电子产品提供更多技术。柔性电子技术预计将越来越多地应用于各种应用，包括能源(光伏、电池和照明)、消费设备(显示器、传感器、执行器)、医疗保健(传感器)、通信(RFID)和国防(传感器、光伏、显示器)。柔性电子产品领域是一个快速增长的市场，专家预测，到2025年，规模将达到2500亿美元。必须开发适当的技术来复制当前的固态设备；这些设备包括可打印的半导体、绝缘体、导体和金属。无机半导体纳米线对印刷非常有吸引力；它们的形态表明，用这些材料制造的设备将是灵活和透明的。CdSe纳米线对光有很强的各向异性吸收，这表明它们可用于薄型光传感器和偏振传感器。这种传感器有望部署在“智能”建筑传感器网络中。该项目开发的技术将能够在各种衬底上创造各种额外的设备，包括塑料和金属箔等柔性薄膜，以及玻璃或半导体晶片等传统硬质衬底。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to develop large-scale manufacturing methods for inorganic semiconductor nanowires, specifically CdSe nanowires. An automated pilot reactor will be designed and built that will allow a reduction in materials cost and an improvement in the robustness of the synthesis, thus allowing a scale-up of nanowire production to multi-gram scale. The resulting nanowires will be incorporated into functional inks for printed/flexible electronics. A prototype printed photosensor will be produced as a demonstration. The demonstration device will validate that inorganic semiconducting nanowires can be incorporated into flexible/printed electronics using standard plastic substrates and commercial printing methods. The production of robust nanoinks will allow for easy incorporation into current commercial printed electronics manufacturing streams. While characterization of the materials and devices will involve a variety of techniques (including electron microscopy), the project will also focus on the validation of materials via simple optical metrology techniques (such as ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy) that could be incorporated in-line for large-scale manufacturing of nanomaterials, nanoinks, and printed substrates. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be to provide additional technologies for printed and flexible electronics. Flexible electronics technology is expected to be increasingly applied in a variety of applications including energy (photovoltaics, batteries, and lighting), consumer devices (displays, sensors, actuators), healthcare (sensors), communication (RFID), and defense (sensors, photovoltaics, displays). The area of flexible electronics is a rapidly growing market, with experts predicting a size of $250 billion by 2025. Appropriate technologies must be developed to replicate current solid state devices; these include printable semiconductors, insulators, conductors, and metals. Inorganic semiconducting nanowires are extremely appealing for printing; their morphology suggests that devices made with these materials would be flexible and transparent. CdSe nanowires have strong anisotropic absorption of light, suggesting their utility for thin-form photo- and polarization sensors. Such sensors are expected to be deployed in "smart" building sensor nets. The technology developed in this project will enable the creation of a variety of additional devices on a variety of substrates, including flexible films, such as plastics and metal foils, in addition to conventional rigid substrates such as glass or semiconductor wafers.