CAREER: Roll-to-Roll Fabrication of Porous Materials Using Nanobubble Templates

职业：使用纳米气泡模板卷对卷制造多孔材料

• 批准号: 1943907
• 负责人: Roseanne Warren
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of Utah
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1943907&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Roll; Fabrication; Porous; Materials

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant explores a new manufacturing approach for creating templated, nanoporous materials that is compatible with high-throughput, scalable manufacturing protocols, including roll-to-roll fabrication. Nanoporous materials are materials characterized by pore sizes in the sub-micrometer range (for reference a human hair is approximately 20 micrometers). They have many important applications in electrochemical energy storage, catalysis, ion separation and tissue engineering. In electrochemical cells, including batteries and supercapacitors, electrode pore structure is critical to achieving good transport of ions and electrons through the cell, thus enabling higher energy and power densities. While numerous methods exist for synthesizing electrodes with controlled pore structures, there is a critical need to find new approaches for fabricating templated, nanoporous materials that are compatible with the high-throughput, roll-to-roll manufacturing processes currently employed in industries such as battery production. This project explores a new porous material manufacturing approach that uses nanoscale bubble templates in place of traditional hard templating materials, thus enabling precise control over the resulting porous structure while eliminating process complexities and waste associated with removal of the hard-templating material. The research is integrated with an educational plan that supports the training of graduate and undergraduate student researchers, enhances educational opportunities in the field of nanomanufacturing, and creates new opportunities for underrepresented minority groups in STEM, with a focus on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students.The specific goal of this research is to test the hypothesis that nanosized bubbles can be used as templates to fabricate meso- and macroporous materials, and that the pore structures of these materials can be precisely engineered by controlling the size distribution and position of the bubbles during the templating process. The research addresses the follow key question: Can nanoscale bubbles be used to controllably template porous structures across micro-to-millimeter thick films at manufacturing rates compatible with meter-per-second scale (i.e. roll-to-roll) processing? The research addresses gaps in current knowledge of nanobubbles, including: i) mechanisms of solid film formation at nanobubble three-phase (gas-liquid-solid) interfaces; ii) the physics of nanobubble generation and stability, and iii) the precision with which nanobubble positions can be manipulated using methods such as acoustic standing waves. The research also tests new methods for real-time investigations of nanobubbles using in-situ liquid scanning transmission electron microscopy to advance fundamental knowledge of nanobubble interfaces and stability. Overall, the research and education plans establish the PI’s long-term career in advanced manufacturing of nanoscale materials for electrochemical energy storage and other applications.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.

这项教师早期职业发展（Career）资助探索了一种新的制造方法，用于创建模板化、纳米多孔材料，这种材料与高通量、可扩展的制造协议兼容，包括卷对卷制造。纳米多孔材料是一种孔径在亚微米范围内的材料（作为参考，人的头发大约是20微米）。它们在电化学储能、催化、离子分离和组织工程等方面有着重要的应用。在包括电池和超级电容器在内的电化学电池中，电极孔隙结构对于实现离子和电子在电池中的良好传输至关重要，从而实现更高的能量和功率密度。虽然有许多方法可以合成具有可控孔隙结构的电极，但迫切需要找到新的方法来制造模板化的纳米多孔材料，这些材料与目前在电池生产等行业中使用的高通量、卷对卷制造工艺兼容。该项目探索了一种新的多孔材料制造方法，该方法使用纳米级气泡模板代替传统的硬模板材料，从而能够精确控制所产生的多孔结构，同时消除了与去除硬模板材料相关的工艺复杂性和浪费。该研究与一项教育计划相结合，该计划支持研究生和本科生研究人员的培训，增强纳米制造领域的教育机会，并为STEM中代表性不足的少数群体创造新的机会，重点关注夏威夷原住民和太平洋岛民学生。本研究的具体目标是验证纳米气泡可以作为模板来制造中孔和大孔材料的假设，并且在模板过程中通过控制气泡的大小分布和位置可以精确地设计这些材料的孔结构。该研究解决了以下关键问题：纳米级气泡能否以与米/秒级（即卷对卷）加工兼容的制造速度，在微至毫米厚的薄膜上可控地模板多孔结构？该研究解决了目前纳米气泡知识的空白，包括：i)纳米气泡三相（气-液-固）界面固膜形成机制；Ii)纳米气泡产生和稳定性的物理原理，以及iii)利用声波驻波等方法操纵纳米气泡位置的精度。该研究还测试了使用原位液体扫描透射电子显微镜实时研究纳米气泡的新方法，以推进纳米气泡界面和稳定性的基础知识。总的来说，研究和教育计划确立了PI在电化学储能和其他应用的纳米级材料的先进制造方面的长期职业生涯。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。