Cellulose Nanomaterials Enabled Manufacturing of Multi-Scale Porous Structured Ceramics

这笔赠款为使用纤维素纳米材料的多尺度纳米结构多孔陶瓷的新制造平台奠定了科学和工程基础。这些陶瓷被广泛应用于下一代零部件，包括电子设备、生物植入物、催化剂、航空航天和能源收集，这对美国的经济和繁荣产生了巨大影响。纤维素纳米材料是比人类头发小得多的纤维，可以从树木和棉花中获得，作为一种清洁材料来源。目前，多尺度纳米结构多孔陶瓷的制造需要许多步骤，通常与大规模制造不兼容，使用的化学物质仅对某些成分有效。这项研究在材料科学、表面化学和材料加工领域创造了新的多学科知识，通过减少加工步骤和添加剂，以更简单、更高效和更具成本效益的方式制造多孔结构陶瓷。这种方法的多功能性使其成为一个制造平台，能够利用自然资源和植物废弃物(如谷壳)生产一系列先进材料。这为接受材料和制造方面的高等教育以及培训下一代更多样化和包容性更强的科学家做好准备提供了可能性。这种方法的简单性可能会降低这些类型材料的制造成本，从而导致更便宜、更好的计算机、太阳能电池板和骨植入物。纤维素纳米材料的形貌和表面化学使其成为合成、加工和成形各种陶瓷材料和结构的理想候选材料。该项目探索了纤维素纳米材料的自组装、动力学和结构形成机制，通过这些机制，可以简化多尺度介观结构多孔陶瓷的加工和生产。该项目探索了纤维素纳米材料作为表面和模板剂以及在陶瓷加工中作为成型助剂的潜在用途。这项研究的重点是了解陶瓷和纤维素纳米颗粒之间的相互作用，特别是这些混合物的化学和结构控制，并利用这种了解来加工多孔陶瓷。这些实验是由计算成像以及将微观结构与纤维素纳米材料与陶瓷颗粒通过化学和物理机制自组装成不同结构的模型相关联的。这种方法的主要特点是依赖于该平台提供的易于处理(化学兼容性、易于混合、简单模板化)，而不是目前最先进的创建介观结构材料。这项研究的潜在应用是在简单/简化的工艺和方法上产生重大影响，以在“大块”水平上设计中间结构陶瓷。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant establishes the scientific and engineering foundation for a new manufacturing platform for multi-scale nanostructured porous ceramics using cellulose nanomaterials. These ceramics are used in next generation components for a wide range of applications, including, electronic devices, bioimplants, catalysts, aerospace and energy harvesting, which greatly impacts U.S. economy and prosperity. Cellulose nanomaterials are fibers much smaller than human hair and are available from trees and cotton as a clean material source. Currently, the fabrication of multi-scale nanostructured porous ceramics entails many steps, often not compatible with large-scale manufacturing, using chemicals that are only valid for certain compositions. This research creates new multidisciplinary knowledge in the areas of materials science, surface chemistry and materials processing to manufacture porous structured ceramics in a more simple, efficient and cost-effective manner by reducing processing steps and additives. The versatility of this approach makes this a manufacturing platform capable of generating a range of advanced materials using natural resources and plant waste, such as, grain husks. This opens possibilities for access to higher education in materials and manufacturing and training of the next generation of more diverse and inclusive scientists ready for the work force. The simplicity of the approach can potentially lower manufacturing cost for these types of materials, resulting in cheaper and better computers, solar panels and bone implants. Cellulose nanomaterial morphology and surface chemistry makes it an excellent candidate to be used for the synthesis, processing and shaping of a wide range of ceramic materials and structures. This project explores the self-assembly, kinetics and structural formation mechanisms through which cellulose nanomaterials can enable simplified processing and production of multi-scale meso-structured porous ceramics. The project explores the potential use of cellulose nanomaterials as surface and templating agents and as a shaping aid in ceramic processing. The research focuses on developing an understanding of the interaction between ceramics and cellulose nanoparticles, specifically, the chemical and structural control of these mixtures, and using this understanding to process the porous ceramics. The experiments are driven by computational imaging as well as models that correlate microstructure with the self- assembly of cellulose nanomaterials with ceramic particles into different structures by chemical and physical mechanisms. The key feature of this approach relies on the ease of processing (chemistry compatibility, ease of mixture, simple templating) provided by this platform versus the current state-of-the-art to create mesostructured materials. The potential application of this research is to make significant impacts in facile/simplified processes and approaches to design mesostructured ceramics at the 'bulk' level.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.