SNM: High-Throughput Electrospinning of Photocatalytic Mats for Energy Harvesting

静电纺丝是一种纳米制造工艺，它能够单步加工自支撑的、三维的和/或分级的纳米纤维网络，通常是聚合物及其复合材料。近年来，该工艺已被用于合成纳米级陶瓷。然而，生产的电纺垫的数量和质量仍接近实验室规模。该奖项的重点是推进陶瓷纳米纤维静电纺丝，以确保高工艺产量、工艺和产品的重复性和再现性，以及优化的质量控制。预期的结果是一种商业上可行的、高通量的纳米制造工艺，可以大批量、低成本地生产功能纳米陶瓷。加工先进的光催化剂，通过分解水将太阳能转化为氢燃料，是本奖项涉及的电纺氧化物的目标应用之一。从物质的可获得性和从太阳能中获取能源的使用来看，美国经济和社会福利预期会有多种好处。这个多学科项目汇集了材料制造、纳米材料合成、电化学、机械工程和计算建模方面的专业知识。这一奖项将增加熟练的劳动力，指导基于陶瓷静电纺丝的纳米材料制造新行业的增长，从而创造更多的就业机会。该奖项涉及与大规模3D垫的形成机制有关的基本问题，该垫由自支撑、高表面积、陶瓷氧化物纳米结构组成。它跨越多个学科，是在纳米纤维材料加工、结构和机械性能表征和建模以及光催化性能评估方面具有互补专业知识的四位合作者的共同努力。将对纺丝和焙烧的纳米纤维垫的结构特征进行建模，以便能够微调它们的加工条件，并优化高通量工艺的最终设计。对电纺垫的机械性能的测量将决定它们作为光催化毯的性能。对垫子的光电化学性能的评估将指导它们的定制合成。这项工作中采用的方法和技术有望彻底改变用于能源相关应用的自支撑/非分散陶瓷纳米纤维垫的工业制造过程。该项目由工程局和数学和物理科学局的材料研究司联合资助。

Electrospinning is a nanomanufacturing process that enables the single step processing of self-supported, three-dimensional, and/or hierarchical networks of nanofibers, typically of polymers and their composites. This process has been exploited in recent years for the synthesis of nanoscale ceramics. However, the amount and quality of the electrospun mats produced are still close to a laboratory-scale. The focus of this award is to advance ceramic nanofiber electrospinning to ensure high process yield, process and product repeatability and reproducibility, along with optimized quality control. The anticipated result is a commercially-viable, high-throughput, nanomanufacturing process that produces functional nano-ceramics in large volumes and at a low cost. Processing of advanced photocatalysts for solar energy conversion to hydrogen fuel through water splitting is one of the targeted applications for the electrospun oxides addressed by this award. There are multiple anticipated benefits to the US economy and the welfare of the society, in terms of material availability and it's use in harvesting energy from the sun. This multidisciplinary project brings together expertise in materials manufacturing, nanomaterials synthesis, electrochemistry, mechanical engineering, and computational modeling. This award will add to the skilled workforce that will guide the growth of new industries for nanomaterials manufacturing based on ceramic electrospinning, thus creating more jobs. This award addresses fundamental issues related to the mechanism of formation of large-scale 3D mats, comprised of self-supported, high surface area, ceramic oxide nanostructures. It spans several disciplines, and it is the joint effort between four collaborators with complementary expertise in nanofibrous materials processing, structural and mechanical property characterization and modeling, and photocatalytic property assessment. The structural features of the as-spun and calcined nanofibrous mats will be modeled to enable the fine-tuning of their processing conditions and to optimize the final design of the high-throughput process. The measurement of the mechanical properties of the electrospun mats will determine how they will perform as photocatalytic blankets. Assessment of the photoelectrochemical properties of the mats will guide their tailored synthesis. The methods and techniques employed in this work are expected to revolutionize industrial processes for the nanomanufacturing of self-supported / non-dispersed ceramic nanofibrous mats for energy-related applications.This project is jointly funded by the Engineering Directorate and the Division of Materials Research in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate.