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（CNTs）表现出惊人的性能；然而，目前这些特性中只有一小部分可以转化为可供工程师和消费者使用的产品。有效转移碳纳米管？要想将碳纳米管转化为有用的产品，需要一种方法来有效地将碳纳米管排列并共价互连成纳米级的定制结构。该项目将为使用碳纳米管制造薄板材料奠定基本的认识和基础，这种材料被称为巴克带，可以快速以卷的形式生产并扩大规模用于工业应用。所提出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（UV）反应化学可以快速地将碳纳米管共价互连，从而提高碳纳米管网络的负载传递和热电输运性能。网络的在线多阶段拉伸可以将随机分散的互联碳纳米管网络定向到特定的模式，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经济实惠的闭环质量控制和减少变化的方法。将建立一个原型来演示连续卷对卷工艺，以制造具有高导电性和导热性，低制造成本的强巴克胶带。该项目可以将碳纳米管薄膜网络从实验室规模的示范材料转变为具有优越性能的商业可行产品，其性能可能超过最先进的碳纤维材料。连续的巴基胶带可以在航空航天、电子、能源、医药和交通运输领域应用新材料。例如，连续的巴基胶带可以取代波音787 60英里电缆的金属屏蔽，并将电缆重量减轻25%。教育和推广计划将使那些代表性不足的学生接触到分子设计、纳米制造工艺开发和质量控制、结构-性质关系研究。面向应用的材料设计和纳米制造工艺开发将激励学生进入纳米技术，制造和新材料的开发。

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.