CCI Phase I: NSF Center for Chemo-Mechanical Assembly

就像水流携带着鹅卵石一样，流体流动也可以携带纳米颗粒和微胶囊等微粒。虽然机械泵通常用于驱动流体流动，但化学“泵”也可以通过化学反应网络来驱动流体，从而产生化学浓度和流体密度的梯度。美国国家科学基金会化学机械装配中心（CCMA）的研究人员正在开发新的变革性工具，以实现对密闭环境中流体流动和颗粒组织的前所未有的控制。这些精确控制的流体流动能够设计出自供电、自维持的系统，这些系统可以组织颗粒，并能够执行复杂的功能，例如自主纳米颗粒系统，它可以检测化学来源，并集体向其提供响应化学物质，从而进行重要的分析或创造新的结构。CCMA团队包括催化、合成化学、物理化学、流体流动和建模方面的专业知识。除了为化学社区提供新的化学反应网络工具外，CCMA还通过培训学生多学科实验和建模技术，为科学和技术劳动力的发展做出贡献。通过其行业附属项目，CCMA正在参与学生培训和技术转让。在进行研究的同时，该团队正在开展一项积极的教育和向公众推广的计划。这包括为研究型职业中代表性不足的群体扩大本科生和研究生的研究机会。该团队还参与了几个大型的公共宣传项目，包括公开讲座、设计亲身体验的旅行展览，以及与博物馆和科学中心合作。通过结合创新建模和实验研究的合作研究，NSF CCI第一阶段：化学机械装配中心（CCMA）正在利用催化化学反应来引入时空化学梯度，从而驱动周围流体的流动。这种流动反过来又使悬浮粒子的集体行为得以操纵，从而驱动动态自组织的新模式。该中心正在开发新的方法来引起纳米和微米尺度材料的定向输运，控制密闭室中的颗粒组织，并建立新的化学途径来调节溶液中颗粒的非平衡结构形成。这些研究为化学界提供了全新的工具和知识，包括催化级联反应的新化学；化学反馈回路设计规则的确定非平衡装配新模式的论证；以及对这些系统中出现的非线性行为和自动放大的新理解的进展。潜在的应用包括创建独立的微流体装置，自主执行多阶段化学反应和便携式生物医学应用分析；恶劣环境下的自动化材料装配；小型工厂可以自主运作，制造用于精密仪器和机器人系统的微型部件，同时，筛选产生具有特定性能的微型机器的最佳反应参数。为了激发公众对这一新兴化学领域的兴趣和欣赏，CCMA团队正在参与参与机构的几项大型公共宣传计划，包括公开讲座、亲身实践的巡回展览、博物馆和科学中心项目。

Much as a river current carries a pebble, fluid flows can carry particulates such as nanoparticles and microcapsules. While mechanical pumps are conventionally used to drive fluid flow, chemical "pumps" can also propel fluid by using chemical reaction networks to create gradients in chemical concentrations and fluid densities. Researchers in the NSF Center for Chemo-Mechanical Assembly (CCMA) are creating new transformative tools to enable unprecedented control over fluid flow and particle organization in confined environments. These precisely controlled fluid flows enable the design of self-powered, self-sustaining systems that organize particles and are capable of performing complex functions such as an autonomous nanoparticle system that detects a chemical source and collectively delivers a response chemical to it resulting in a vital analysis or creation of a novel structure. The CCMA team includes expertise in catalysis, synthetic chemistry, physical chemistry, fluid flow, and modeling. In addition to providing the chemistry community with new chemical reaction network tools, CCMA is also contributing to science and technology workforce development by training students in multidisciplinary experimental and modeling techniques. Through its industry affiliates program, CCMA is engaging industry in student training and technology transfer. Concurrent with the research, the team is launching a vigorous program of education and outreach to the public. This includes expanding undergraduate and graduate research opportunities for underrepresented groups in research-based careers. The team is also participating in several large-scale public outreach programs including public lectures, designing hands-on traveling exhibits, and teaming with museums and science centers. Through collaborative research that combines innovative modeling and experimental studies, the NSF CCI Phase I: Center for Chemo-Mechanical Assembly (CCMA) is harnessing catalytic chemical reactions to introduce spatiotemporal chemical gradients that drive the flow of a surrounding fluid. This flow, in turn, enables the manipulation of the collective behavior of suspended particles to drive new modes of dynamic self-organization. The Center is developing novel approaches to cause directed transport of nano- and micron-scale materials, control particle organization in confined chambers, and establish new chemical routes for regulating non-equilibrium structure formation from particles in solution. These studies are providing the chemistry community with fundamentally new tools and knowledge, including new chemistries for the creation of catalytic cascades; determination of design rules for chemical feedback loops; demonstration of new modes of out-of-equilibrium assembly; and progress toward new understanding of the nonlinear behavior and auto-amplification emerging from these systems. Potential applications include the creation of standalone microfluidic devices that autonomously perform multi-stage chemical reactions and assays for portable biomedical applications; automated materials assembly in harsh environments; and small-scale factories that can operate autonomously to build microscale components for use in fine instrumentation and robotic systems, and, in parallel, to screen for optimal reaction parameters yielding micro-machines with specified properties. To generate excitement and public appreciation about this emerging area of chemistry, the CCMA team is participating in several large-scale public outreach programs at the participating institutions, including public lectures, hands-on traveling exhibits, and museum and science center projects.