Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Hierarchical Nanometer-Scale Colloidal Assemblies Using Integrated Electrospray and Microfluidics

提供清洁的水和安全的药物输送是巨大的社会挑战。纳米技术领域提供了应对这两个挑战的方法。然而，支持这些革命性解决方案所需的纳米颗粒，特别是亚10纳米颗粒的制造受到低产量和长生产时间的困扰。传统的自组装纳米材料的制备非常耗时，而且在颗粒热波动作用下，由于颗粒间不受控制的相互作用，导致对结构的均匀性控制不佳。这笔赠款支持基础研究，以开发一种可扩展的纳米制造工艺，用于高通量生产纳米胶体组件。这种集成了快速电喷雾和微流控工艺的新方法解决了目前层次化结构纳米材料制造速度慢、成品率低的瓶颈。这项研究的成功影响到美国的制造业、经济和安全。该项目独一无二地融合了多个学科，包括制造、流体力学、材料科学和设备制造。这种多学科的方法有助于招收和培训学生，包括女性和代表性不足的少数族裔，作为下一代美国工程师，从而对工程教育产生积极影响。许多制造方法利用外场，如电场和光场，来克服胶体热波动，并指导胶体纳米颗粒的组装。然而，快速、精确地组装10 nm或更小尺寸的纳米胶体(包括贵金属和金属氧化物纳米团簇和(生物)聚合物)的可扩展纳米制造工艺仍然很少，而且具有挑战性。该项目开发了一种集成的电喷雾和微流控制造工艺，可以在液滴纳米反应器中快速浓缩无机纳米簇和聚合物，并通过介电泳法控制它们的分级纳米胶体组装。超快激光光谱学与连续微流控过程相结合，能够原位表征在液体介质中构建分级纳米胶体的组成和组装过程。这项研究的结果促进了人们对复杂纳米材料纳米尺度电动行为的基本理解。电喷雾和介电微流控模块都可以线性放大，开创了多组分和结构化纳米胶体组件的高通量纳米制造的先河。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。

Providing clean water and safe drug delivery are grand societal challenges. The field of nanotechnology offers ways to address both challenges. However, the manufacture of nanoparticles and, in particular, sub-10 nm particles needed to support these revolutionary solutions is plagued by low yield and long production times. Conventional production of self-assembled nanomaterials is highly time consuming with poor control of structural uniformity due to undesired and uncontrolled inter-particle interactions under particle thermal fluctuation. This grant supports fundamental research to develop a scalable nanomanufacturing process for high-throughput production of nanocolloidal assemblies. The new approach that integrates rapid electrospray and microfluidic processes solves the current bottleneck in slow and low-yield manufacturing of hierarchically structured nanomaterials. The success of this research impacts U.S. manufacturing, economy, and security. This project uniquely integrates multiple disciplines including manufacturing, fluid mechanics, materials science, and device fabrication. The multidisciplinary approach helps recruit and train students, including women and underrepresented minorities, as the next generation of U.S. engineers, thus positively impacting engineering education. Many manufacturing approaches have utilized external fields, such as electrical and optical fields, to overcome colloidal thermal fluctuations and direct the assembly of colloidal nanoparticles. However, scalable nanomanufacturing processes to rapidly and precisely assemble nanocolloids of 10 nm or smaller size, including noble metal and metal oxide nanoclusters and (bio)polymers, remain few and challenging. This project develops an integrated electrospray and microfluidic manufacturing process to rapidly concentrate inorganic nanoclusters and polymers in droplet nanoreactors and control their hierarchical nanocolloidal assembly by dielectrophoresis. Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is integrated with the continuous microfluidic process to enable in-situ characterization of the compositions and assembly process of building hierarchical nanocolloids in liquid media. Results obtained from this research advance the fundamental understanding of nanoscale electrokinetic behavior of complex nanomaterials. Both electrospray and dielectrophoresis microfluidic modules can be linearly scaled-up to pioneer high-throughput nanomanufacturing of multi-component and structured nanocolloidal assemblies.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.