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）显示出惊人的性能;然而，目前只有一小部分这些性能可以转移到可供工程师和消费者使用的产品中。为了有效地转移碳纳米管？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CNT排列和共价互连成纳米级的定制结构。该项目将为使用CNT制造薄板材（称为布基胶带）建立基本的理解和基础，这种薄板材可以快速地以卷状生产并扩大到工业应用。所提出的方法将使用一种改进的压铸制造工艺，利用选定的流动介质的自排斥效应。原位紫外（UV）反应化学可以快速共价连接碳纳米管，以改善碳纳米管网络的负载转移和热和电子传输性能。网的在线多阶段拉伸可以将随机分散的互连CNT网络定向成特定图案，以提供更大的强度和优化的输送性能。在线拉曼光谱监测和多级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变化减少方法。将建立一个原型，以展示连续的卷到卷的过程中，制造强大的布基磁带具有高导电性和导热性，和低制造成本。 该项目可以将CNT薄膜网络从实验室规模的演示材料转变为商业上可行的产品，其上级性能可能超过最先进的碳纤维材料。连续布基胶带在航空航天、电子、能源、医药、交通运输等领域有着广阔的应用前景。例如，连续的布基胶带可以取代波音787中60英里电缆的金属屏蔽，并将电缆重量减少25%。教育和推广计划将使特别是代表性不足的学生接触分子设计，纳米制造工艺开发和质量控制，结构-性能关系研究。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进入纳米技术，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.