SBIR Phase I: Platform for Printable Chemical Sensors

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目是开发一个基于功能化碳纳米管（CNT）薄膜的化学传感器平台。功能化CNT薄膜作为化学传感器在诊断、食品安全、工业过程监测、环境监测、国家安全等各种应用中表现出卓越的性能。小尺寸和令人印象深刻的性能的独特组合使CNT传感器具有将化学传感应用于无数用例的潜力，预计到2027年，市场总额将超过132亿美元，其中一些是当前传感技术无法解决的。高性能替代品需要庞大而昂贵的实验室设备，大多数用户无法采用。那些确实具有合适形状因子的化学传感解决方案缺乏CNT的性能。此外，CNT传感器还具有可打印、灵活和在室温下工作的优点，所有这些都有助于传感器技术平台的发展，从而大幅扩大可使用的化学传感市场。这项工作将侧重于为两个关键技术挑战制定解决方案。该项目的智力价值将集中在证明使用高纯度半导体碳纳米管作为薄膜传感器平台的基础材料的可行性。尽管CNT传感器具有令人印象深刻的性能和小的占地面积，但由于两个主要挑战，这些薄膜的商业化一直缓慢甚至不存在：首先，由于漂移-CNT薄膜随时间推移而降解的趋势-传感器在12-24小时后失效。鉴于高性能CNT传感器需要昂贵的半导体CNT材料，这种快速失效在经济上是不可行的。第二个主要的技术痛点是，当从实验室过渡到实际应用时，薄膜传感器可能会与干扰物（例如湿度，低分子量化合物，温度等）发生反应，导致错误的读数。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to develop a platform for chemical sensors based on thin films of functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNT). Functionalized CNT thin films have demonstrated remarkable performance as chemical sensors in applications as varied as diagnostics, food safety, industrial process monitoring, environmental monitoring, national security, and more. The unique combination of small form-factor and impressive performance give CNT sensors the potential to bring chemical sensing to a myriad of use cases, with a combined market of over $13.2 billion projected by 2027, some which are not addressable with current sensing technologies. High-performance alternatives require bulky and expensive lab-based equipment that cannot be adopted by most users. Those chemical sensing solutions that do have suitable form factors lack the performance of CNTs. Moreover, CNT sensors also offer the benefit of being printable, flexible, and operating at room temperature—all of which contribute to a sensor technology platform with the ability to drastically expand the serviceable chemical sensing market. This work will focus on developing solutions to two key technical challenges. The intellectual merit of this project will focus on demonstrating the feasibility of using high-purity semiconducting CNTs as the basis material for a thin-film sensor platform. Despite the impressive performance and small footprint of CNT sensors, commercialization of these thin films has been slow to non-existent due to two major challenges: First, due to drift – the tendency of CNT thin-films to degrade over time – sensors fail after 12–24 hours. Given that high-performance CNT sensors require expensive semiconducting CNT materials, such rapid failure is not economically viable. The second major technical pain point is that when transitioned from the lab to real-world applications, thin-film sensors are likely to react with interferents (e.g. humidity, low-molecular-weight compounds, temperature, etc.), resulting in false readings. This proposed work will seek to develop solutions to both technical challenges.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.