Additive Nanomanufacturing of Multifunctional Materials and Hybrid Structures

该补助金支持研究，以填补与多功能材料和混合结构的增材制造有关的科学空白，用于从电子和传感到量子材料和设备的应用。虽然各种增材制造工艺能够产生复杂的宏观大尺度单一材料物体，但纳米尺度多功能材料（例如，压电、铁磁、复合材料和混合器件由于有限的源材料和缺乏合适的制造系统而具有挑战性。该奖项支持基础研究，为创建一个平台提供所需的知识，该平台能够按需生成，交付和烧结各种金属，半导体，绝缘以及多功能纳米粒子，以逐层制造耐用可靠的混合结构和器件。直接在共形表面上生成此类材料和器件的独特能力使这种方法成为能源，生物医学，汽车和航空航天工业中多种应用的有吸引力的解决方案，最终使美国经济受益。这项研究在包括制造、材料科学、机械和电子在内的多个学科之间创造了协同效应。多学科的方法有助于扩大学生在研究中的多元化群体的参与，并积极影响工程教育和熟练劳动力的发展。本研究旨在建立支持增材纳米制造（ANM）的实验基础，克服现有的障碍，制造具有纳米级特征的多功能混合结构和器件，并能够容忍服务环境。该研究采用非平衡过程，脉冲激光烧蚀（PLA）和激光烧结，以控制各种多功能纳米颗粒构建块的合成和组装成具有复杂功能的混合结构和设备。该研究团队旨在了解形成过程，并确定通过原位PLA工艺制造的功能构建块的结构，并探索其实时激光烧结/结晶成逐层方式的更大结构。具体而言，本研究旨在阐明i）纳米颗粒如何通过大气压PLA工艺在气相中形成，ii）这些纳米颗粒如何相互作用，iii）它们的相和结构如何在激光烧结条件下演变，以及iv）新兴的工艺-结构-性能关系是什么，使得能够制造具有增强性能的耐用混合结构。在建立钛酸钡（BTO）和氧化铟锡（ITO）的ANM的工艺窗口后，将它们的混合结构和器件印刷在柔性基板上，以测量它们的机械、电气和压电特性，并确保它们的功能和结构完整性。这项研究揭示了一种新的制造概念，使多功能材料和混合结构的制造采用“应用设计”的方法，以满足结构和功能的要求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

This grant supports research to fill the scientific gap pertaining to additive manufacturing of multifunctional materials and hybrid structures for applications spanning from electronics and sensing to quantum materials and devices. While a variety of additive manufacturing processes are capable of creating complex macroscopic large-scale single-material objects, printing of nano-scale multifunctional materials, e.g., piezoelectric, ferromagnetic, composites, and hybrid devices is challenging due to limited source materials and lack of suitable fabrication systems. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for creating a platform that is capable of generating, delivering, and sintering a variety of metallic, semiconducting, insulating as well as multifunctional nanoparticles on demand, to fabricate durable and reliable hybrid structures and devices layer-by-layer. The unique ability to generate such materials and devices directly on conformal surfaces makes this approach an attractive solution for several applications in energy, biomedical, automotive and aerospace industries, which ultimately benefits the U.S. economy. This research creates synergy amongst several disciplines including manufacturing, materials science, mechanics, and electronics. The multi-disciplinary approach helps broaden the participation of a diverse group of students in research and positively impacts engineering education and skilled workforce development. This research aims to establish the experimental foundation underpinning additive nanomanufacturing (ANM), overcoming the existing barriers in fabricating multifunctional hybrid structures and devices with nanoscale features and capable of tolerating service environments. The research employs nonequilibrium processes, pulsed laser ablation (PLA) and laser sintering, to control the synthesis and assembly of various multifunctional nanoparticle building-blocks into hybrid structures and devices that possess complex functionalities. The research team aims to understand the process of formation and identify the structures of functional building-blocks manufactured by in-situ PLA process and explore their real-time laser sintering/crystallization into larger structures in a layer-by-layer fashion. Specifically, this research is designed to elucidate i) how nanoparticles form in the gas-phase by atmospheric pressure PLA process, ii) how these nanoparticles interact with each other, iii) how their phases and structures evolve under the laser sintering conditions, and iv) what the emerging process-structure-property relationships are that enable fabrication of durable hybrid structures with enhanced performance. Upon establishing the process window for ANM of barium titanate (BTO) and indium tin oxide (ITO), their hybrid structures and devices are printed on a flexible substrate to measure their mechanical, electrical, and piezoelectric properties and ensure their functionality and structural integrity. This research unveils a new manufacturing concept that enables the fabrication of multifunctional materials and hybrid structures employing a 'design for application' approach to meet both structural and functional requirements.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.