GOALI: Nanomanufacturing of Ultrahigh-Performance Continuous Carbon Nanofibers and Their Assemblies

连续碳纳米纤维在成本、易于处理、加工成有用的应用以及它们集成到多尺度组件中的可能性方面具有优于其他纳米材料的优势。然而，它们的机械性能需要显著改善以改善可加工性。由于纳米纤维的小尺度，在加工期间难以或不可能使用已成功用于制造常规较大尺度碳纤维的外部机械约束。适当约束的纳米纤维可以匹配或超过传统纤维的机械性能;高机械性能加上低成本加工、小直径和纳米表面积将开辟纳米纤维应用的广阔新领域。这个赠款机会学术联络与行业（GOALI）计划奖支持基础研究，提供所需的知识，利用内部限制的替代方法的发展。与仅适用于对齐（一维）纤维束的经典外部约束不同，新工艺将适用于一维和二维和三维的碳纳米管结构，可以产生革命性的负担得起的高性能散装纳米结构碳产品。这些多尺度纳米结构可用于航空航天、能源、环境保护、医疗保健、生物医学和汽车行业的广泛应用。因此，这项研究的成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，电动过程控制和材料科学。多学科方法和与两家公司的合作将有助于扩大研究中代表性不足的群体的参与，并对工程教育产生积极影响。该项目在纳米纤维纳米制造过程中的内部约束概念可以克服传统碳纤维高机械性能的经典外部机械约束问题。然而，要实现碳纳米纤维还需要解决几个科学障碍？全部潜力。本研究将研究由于在碳纳米管制造的所有三个阶段，即碳纳米管前体的静电纺丝，其氧化稳定化和高温碳化中加入少量约束性纳米级夹杂物（如碳纳米管）而形成碳纳米管结构的机制。研究团队将进行广泛的参数研究，以分析加工-结构-性能关系，并为单个纳米纤维及其对齐的一维组件选择最佳加工参数。然后将探索这些参数在集成过程中对纳米制造二维和三维宏观碳纳米结构的适用性。学术研究人员与两家公司的合作将有助于将这一基础研究集中在实际问题上，并将加速纳米制造规模的扩大。

Continuous carbon nanofibers have advantages over other nanomaterials in terms of cost, ease of handling, processing into useful applications, and possibility of their integration into multi-scale assemblies. However, their mechanical properties need to be substantially improved to improve processability. Due to the small scale of the nanofibers, it is difficult or impossible to use external mechanical constraints during processing that have been successfully utilized in manufacturing conventional larger-scale carbon fibers. Properly constrained nanofibers can match or exceed mechanical properties of conventional fibers; high mechanical performance coupled with low cost processing, small diameter, and ultrahigh surface area will open up broad new areas of nanofiber applications. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) Program award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for the development of an alternative approach utilizing internal constraints. Unlike the classical external constraint that is only applicable to aligned (one-dimensional) fiber tows, the new process will be applicable to both one-dimensional and two- and three-dimensional nanofiber constructs that can lead to revolutionary affordable high-performance bulk nanostructured carbon products. These multi-scale nanofilamentary structures can be used in a broad range of applications in aerospace, energy, environmental protection, healthcare, biomedical, and automotive industries. Therefore, results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy and society. This research involves several disciplines including manufacturing, electrodynamics process control, and materials science. The multi-disciplinary approach and collaboration with two companies will help broaden participation of underrepresented groups in research and positively impact engineering education.This project's concept of internal constraint during nanomanufacturing of nanofibers can overcome the issues with the classical external mechanical constraint that is instrumental for high mechanical properties of conventional carbon fibers. However, several scientific barriers still need to be resolved to achieve carbon nanofibers? full potential. This research will study the mechanisms of nanofiber structure formation as a result of addition of small quantities of constraining nano-scale inclusions such as carbon nanotubes in all three stages of nanofiber manufacturing, i.e. electrospinning of nanofiber precursors, their oxidative stabilization, and high-temperature carbonization. The research team will perform extensive parametric studies to analyze processing-structure-properties relationships and to select optimal processing parameters for individual nanofibers and their aligned one-dimensional assemblies. Applicability of these parameters to nanomanufacture two- and three- dimensional macroscopic carbon nanofiber constructs in an integrated process will be then explored. The partnership of academic researchers with two companies will help focus this fundamental research on practical issues and will accelerate nanomanufacturing scale-up.