CAREER: Hierarchically-Structured, Ultra-Thin Inorganic Membranes

CBET-1351613Snyder该CAREER计划的主要变革性科学影响将是开发新颖且可扩展的策略，用于将碳分子筛（CMS）膜厚度降低到前所未有的纳米级水平，以实现通量和工业相关选择性的数量级改进。智力的优点将进一步定义的关键的合成结构功能关系的根本阐明，如何纳米级的限制，通过其控制CMS的微观结构，可以作为一个强大的处理CMS纹理，从而选择性调整。该计划的成功将为CMS膜合成的范式带来变革性转变，为材料结构和功能之间的可调协同作用建立新的见解，从而为CMS膜甚至相关的无机膜奠定基础，实现满足并超越工业可行性需求所需的性能飞跃。这个职业计划的基础是希望建立材料合成和分子水平的理解之间的协同作用，以实现合理的材料设计。由此产生的分层结构的材料和膜运输的机械洞察力应导致膜技术和应用的新的合成范例，如传感，催化和存储的影响深远。更广泛影响的一个关键将是开发一个新的三层（即，本课程是一个以探究为基础的学习模块，名为"分子流量控制"，将应用HEXBUG Nano® s对分子扩散和相互作用进行宏观说明。一个多层次的实施战略将利用这一模块进行日益广泛的传播，首先是当地中学科学班和星期六科学/数学学院（星星学院），由一群文化多样、社会经济困难的学生组成。随后，计划将其推广到所有中学科学班、地区科学班，并最终在地区科学博览会上为学生、教师和家长实施。职业生涯计划还将影响直接和间接参与拟议工作的研究生，为他们提供膜/传输现象，材料合成和材料表征领域的知识广度和深度。

CBET-1351613SnyderThe primary transformative scientific impact of this CAREER program will be the development of novel and scalable strategies for reducing carbon molecular sieve (CMS) film thickness to unprecedented nanometer-scale levels for orders of magnitude improvement in flux and industrially relevant selectivities. The intellectual merit will be further defined by the fundamental elucidation of critical synthesis-structure-function relations governing how nanoscale confinement, through its control of CMS microstructure, can serve as a powerful handle for tuning CMS texture and thus selectivity. Success of this program will create a transformative shift in the paradigm for CMS membrane synthesis, establish new insights into tunable synergies between material structure and function, and, thereby, set the stage for CMS membranes, and even related inorganic membranes, to realize the quantum leap in performance that is required to meet and exceed demands for industrial viability. Underlying this CAREER program is the desire to establish synergies between materials synthesis and molecular-level understanding in order to realize rational materials design. The resulting hierarchically structured materials and mechanistic insight into membrane transport should lead to new synthesis paradigms in membrane technologies and applications as far-reaching as sensing, catalysis, and storage. A keystone of the broader impact will be the development of a novel three-tiered (i.e., illustration-guided demonstration-assessment) inquiry-based learning module titled "Molecular Traffic Control" that will apply HEXBUG Nano®s for a macroscopic illustration of molecular diffusion and interactions. A multi-level implementation strategy will leverage this module for increasingly broad dissemination starting with a local middle school science class and Saturday science/math academy (STAR Academy) composed of a culturally diverse, socioeconomically challenged group of students. Subsequent extension to all middle school science classes, district science classes, and eventual implementation at the regional science fair for students, teachers, and parents is planned. The CAREER program will also impact graduate students involved directly and indirectly in the proposed work by providing them with breadth and depth of knowledge in fields of membranes/transport phenomena, materials synthesis, and materials characterization.