SNM: Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of High Quality Bucky-tape with Aligned and Crosslinked Carbon Nanotubes Through In-line Sensing and Control

碳纳米管(CNT)显示出惊人的特性；然而，目前这些特性中只有一小部分可以转化为工程师和消费者可以使用的产品。为了有效地转移碳纳米管？要将碳纳米管的特性转化为有用的产品，需要一种方法来有效地将碳纳米管对准并共价互连成纳米级的定制结构。该项目将为利用碳纳米管制造薄片材料奠定基本的认识和基础，这种材料称为巴基带材，可以快速卷曲生产，并可放大用于工业应用。建议的方法将使用一种改进的压铸制造工艺，利用所选流动介质的自排斥效应。原位紫外光(UV)反应可以快速实现碳纳米管的共价互连，改善碳纳米管网络的负载转移、热传输和电子传输特性。网络的在线多阶段拉伸可以将随机分散的相互连接的碳纳米管网络定向为特定的图案，以提供更大的强度和优化的传输特性。在线拉曼光谱监测和多阶段过程模型将为高质量一致的纳米制造过程提供负担得起的闭环质量控制和减少差异的方法。将建立一个原型，以演示连续卷到卷工艺，以制造高导电性和热导性、低制造成本的坚固的巴基带材。该项目可以将碳纳米管薄膜网络从实验室规模的演示材料转变为具有卓越性能的商业可行产品，潜在地超过最先进的碳纤维材料。这种连续的巴克带可以导致新材料在航空航天、电子、能源、医药和交通等领域的应用。例如，连续的巴基胶带可以取代波音787中60英里长电缆的金属屏蔽，并将电缆重量减轻25%。教育和推广计划将特别向代表不足的学生介绍分子设计、纳米制造过程开发和质量控制、结构-性质关系研究。以应用为导向的材料设计和纳米制造工艺开发将激励学生从事纳米技术、制造和新材料开发。

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) demonstrate amazing properties; however, currently only a fraction of these properties can be transferred into products that can be used by engineers and consumers. To effectively transfer CNTs? properties into useful products requires a method to efficiently align and covalently interconnect the CNTs into tailored architectures at the nanoscale. This project will establish the fundamental understanding and foundation for using CNTs to make thin sheet materials, called Bucky-tapes, which can be rapidly produced in roll form and scaled-up for industrial applications. The proposed method will use a modified die-casting manufacturing process utilizing the self-repelling effects of selected flow media. In-situ ultra-violet (UV) reaction chemistry can covalently interconnect the CNTs rapidly to improve the load transfer and thermal and electronic transport properties of CNT networks. In-line multi-stage stretching of the web could orient the randomly dispersed interconnected CNT networks into specific patterns to provide greater strength and optimized transport properties. In-line Raman spectra monitoring and multistage process models will provide affordable, closed loop quality control and variation reduction methods for a high quality consistent nanomanufacturing process. A prototype will be built to demonstrate the continuous roll-to-roll process for manufacturing strong Bucky-tapes with high electrical and thermal conductivity, and low manufacturing cost. This project can transform CNT thin films networks from a lab-scale demonstration material into commercially viable products with superior properties potentially surpassing the state-of-the-art carbon fiber material. The continuous Bucky-tapes can lead to new materials applications in aerospace, electronics, energy, medicine, and transportation. For example, continuous Bucky-tape could replace metal shielding of 60 miles of cables in the Boeing 787 and reduce cable weight by 25%. The education and outreach plan will expose especially under-represented students to molecular design, nanomanufacturing process development and quality control, structure-property relationship studies. Application oriented materials-by-design and nanomanufacturing process development will motivate students into nanotechnology, manufacturing and new materials development.