STTR Phase I: High yield production of boron nitride nanotubes for advanced heat management in sustainable technologies

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的重点是高质量氮化硼纳米管（BNNT）的增长。BNNT具有比铝高一个数量级的高热导率，并且还具有约6 eV的电子带隙，这使它们成为优异的电绝缘体。 这些独特的性能保证了许多令人兴奋的应用。不幸的是，BNNT是出了名的难以生长，这意味着它们不能以满足工业需求所需的数量生产。 该项目的目标是进一步推进最近开发的高质量BNNT的生长技术。如果成功的话，这将允许BNNT生长速率比标准化学气相沉积生长方法增加一千倍。此外，生长的BNNT将用于制造复合材料，这些复合材料将被测试用作电子系统热管理中的导热材料。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力源于高质量BNNT增长率的成功提高。电子系统的热管理是该行业面临的最紧迫的挑战之一。大多数电子系统使用塑料材料作为安装材料和包装，以使电子元件电绝缘。然而，这些材料会导致热瓶颈，需要昂贵的解决方案和庞大的冷却系统。 因此，大量的工业研究都集中在解决这些热管理挑战上。当BNNT的生长速率已经成功地按比例增加，并且BNNT复合材料的可行性被建立时，它将允许大规模生产导热、电绝缘的塑料复合材料。 这些材料可用于从电动发动机控制器到高效发光二极管单元的所有产品，以减轻电子系统中的热量积聚。 BNNT复合材料的广泛使用将降低电子元件的故障率，减少对庞大冷却系统的需求等，此外，这些复合材料将为新的创新打开大门，如三维电子系统架构。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project focuses on the growth of high quality Boron Nitride Nanotubes (BNNTs). BNNTs have both high thermal conductance that is an order of magnitude higher than aluminum, and also have an electronic bandgap of about 6 eV that makes them an excellent electrical insulator. These unique properties promise many exciting applications. Unfortunately, BNNTs are notoriously difficult to grow, which means that they cannot be produced in the quantities necessary to fulfill industrial needs. The objective of this project is to further advance a recently developed growth technique for high quality BNNTs. If successful, this will allow for a thousand-fold increase in the BNNT growth rate over the standard chemical vapor deposition growth methodology. Furthermore, the grown BNNTs will be used to create composite materials, which will be tested for use as thermally conductive materials in thermal management of electronic systems. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project stems from the successful increase in the growth rate of high quality BNNTs. Heat management of electronic systems is one of the most pressing challenges facing the industry. Most electronics systems use plastic materials both as mounting material and as packaging to electrically isolate the electronic components. However, these materials cause heat bottlenecks that require expensive workarounds and bulky cooling systems. For this reason, a large amount of industrial research is focused on solving these heat management challenges. When the growth rate of BNNTs has been successfully scaled up, and the feasibility of the BNNT composites are established, it will allow for wide scale production of thermally conductive, electrically insulating plastic composite materials. These materials can be used in everything from electric engine controllers to high-efficiency light emitting diode units to alleviate the buildup of heat in electronic systems. Widespread use of BNNT composites will allow for decreased electronic component failure rates, decreased need for bulky cooling systems, etc. In addition, these composites will open up the door for new innovations, such as three-dimensional electronic system architectures.