CAREER: An Integrated Research and Educational Program to Understand Nano Additive Manufacturing by Electrochemical Deposition

该学院早期职业发展(Career)计划奖支持一种新型纳米级添加剂制造工艺的基础研究。加法制造通过在所需零件的数字计算机模型指定的位置添加材料来制造三维对象。现在可用的附加制造工艺只能制造尺寸从几米到几微米的金属或塑料部件。该奖项支持基础研究和教育，为开发一种添加剂制造工艺提供必要的知识，该工艺能够通过逐个体素的材料添加来制造尺寸在几纳米到几微米范围内的纳米级部件，而不需要任何支持结构。由多种导电材料制成的此类部件在生物医学、国防、电子、能源、医疗保健、汽车或航空航天等行业具有潜在的应用前景。因此，这项研究的结果将有利于美国的经济和社会。这项研究涉及多个学科，包括制造、电化学、材料科学和控制理论。多学科方法将有助于扩大代表不足的群体对研究的参与，并对工程教育产生积极影响。针对K-12学生、家长和普通公众的具体外联活动预计将有助于为下一代先进制造业培养受过高等教育的劳动力。电化学添加剂制造工艺可以克服现有添加剂制造技术的一些局限性，如无法达到亚微米级的尺寸、固有的热损伤以及生产悬垂零件不可避免地需要支撑结构。然而，要实现电化学沉积以实现纳米级的添加剂制造，还需要克服一些科学障碍。本研究旨在填补S在纳米尺度电沉积过程中的局部化机理方面的知识空白。研究小组将进行分子动力学模拟，以了解纳米级电化学沉积的局部化机理，开发基于物理的模型来预测纳米级电化学沉积中的沉积速度和残余应力，并进行实验以验证模型，验证如果电化学活化的催化剂参与沉积反应，将发生纳米级电沉积局部化的假设，并建立工艺参数与纳米级电化学沉积中可行的特征尺寸之间的关系。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award supports fundamental research on a novel nanoscale additive manufacturing process. Additive manufacturing makes three-dimensional objects by adding material at locations specified by the digital computer model of the desired part. Additive manufacturing processes available now can make metal or plastic parts with sizes ranging from several meters to few micrometers only. This award supports fundamental research and education to provide needed knowledge for the development of an additive manufacturing process capable of making parts at nanoscale with sizes in the range of few nanometers to several micrometers through voxel-by-voxel material addition without the need for any support structures. Such parts made from a wide variety of conductive materials have potential applications in biomedical, defense, electronics, energy, healthcare, automotive, or aerospace industries. Therefore, results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy and society. This research involves several disciplines including manufacturing, electrochemistry, materials science, and control theory. The multi-disciplinary approach will help broaden participation of underrepresented groups in research and positively impact engineering education. Specific outreach activities targeting K-12 students, parents and general public are expected to help developing highly educated work force for the next generation advanced manufacturing. The electrochemical additive manufacturing process can overcome several limitations of existing additive manufacturing techniques, such as their inability to achieve sub-micrometer size, intrinsic thermal damage, and inevitable need of support structures to produce overhanging parts. However, some scientific barriers are yet to be overcome to realize electrochemical deposition for additive manufacturing at nanoscale. This research is to fill the knowledge gap on the mechanism(s) of localization during electrochemical deposition at nanoscale. The research team will perform molecular dynamics simulation to understand the mechanism of localization in electrochemical deposition at nanoscale, develop physics-based models to predict deposition rate and residual stress in nano electrochemical deposition and conduct experiments to verify the models, test the hypothesis that nanoscale localization of electro deposition will occur if an electrochemically activated catalyst is involved in the deposition reaction, and establish relationships between process parameters and feasible feature sizes in nanoscale electrochemical deposition.