SBIR Phase II: Large-Scale Synthesis of Hollow Metal Nanospheres: Conversion of Batch Synthesis to Continuous Flow

SBIR第二阶段：空心金属纳米球的大规模合成：间歇合成向连续流动的转化

• 批准号: 2127133
• 负责人: Sarah Lindley
• 金额: $ 99.15万
• 依托单位: CORELESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2127133&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Large; Scale

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is based upon establishing a consistent, reliable source of high-quality hollow metal nanoparticles, thus enabling their commercial adoption in applications where they markedly outperform their conventional counterparts. One such application is point-of-use testing: by switching to hollow metal nanoparticles, lateral flow assays will reach higher levels of sensitivity and lower limits of detection, improving field testing for environmental contamination; detection of toxins and pathogens in agriculture; and early disease identification in clinical and veterinary care. Integration into rapid antibody and antigen tests for highly contagious diseases such as COVID-19 should prove particularly impactful, as the resulting higher sensitivity would reduce the occurrence of false negative results, thereby improving the performance (and public perception) of rapid testing. Critically, it would also improve baseline testing availability for rural and under-served populations who do not have access to PCR-equipped clinical laboratories. They can be applied to many other industries as well. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will advance the state of the art of continuous flow synthesis of plasmonic nanomaterials. Nanoparticle synthesis is a highly sensitive process, and obtaining high quality samples of advanced architectures has previously required labor-intensive, small-batch processes incompatible with large-scale production. Simply scaling traditional batch techniques has led to product with poor quality and prohibitive costs. This project advances a prototype reactor that has demonstrated high-throughput production of hollow plasmonic nanoparticles with control over size and color, while maintaining structural uniformity (15% CV). Importantly, it reduced the cost of labor per liter of product by 950% from that of small batch synthesis. The proposed project will increase fidelity, further scale production volume, post-process and stabilize the final product, and benchmark its optical performance. The resulting production-scale reactor will have the capacity necessary to supply LFA manufacturers with ready-to-use, advanced color labels. It will enable new research and new nano-enabled devices by creating a consistent commercial supply of high performance plasmonic nanostructures with well-controlled physical properties. The manufacture of hollow metal nanoparticles for point-of-use testing applications will also pave the way for their expansion into other industries that would also benefit from their advantageous optical and photothermal plasmonic properties, such as photocatalysis, water purification, and phototherapeutics.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.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响是基于建立一个一致的，可靠的高质量空心金属纳米颗粒来源，从而使其在应用中的商业采用，它们显着优于传统的同行。其中一个应用是使用点检测：通过改用中空金属纳米颗粒，侧流检测将达到更高的灵敏度和更低的检测限，改善环境污染的现场检测;检测农业中的毒素和病原体;以及临床和兽医护理中的早期疾病识别。整合到高传染性疾病（如COVID-19）的快速抗体和抗原检测中应证明特别有影响力，因为由此产生的更高灵敏度将减少假阴性结果的发生，从而提高快速检测的性能（和公众感知）。至关重要的是，它还将改善农村和得不到充分服务的人群的基线检测可用性，这些人群无法获得配备PCR的临床实验室。它也可以应用于许多其他行业。这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目将推进等离子体纳米材料连续流合成的最新技术。纳米颗粒合成是一个高度敏感的过程，并且获得先进结构的高质量样品以前需要与大规模生产不相容的劳动密集型小批量工艺。简单地按比例缩放传统的批量技术导致产品质量差和成本过高。该项目推进了一个原型反应器，该反应器已经证明了中空等离子体纳米粒子的高通量生产，可以控制尺寸和颜色，同时保持结构均匀性（15%CV）。重要的是，它将每升产品的劳动力成本从小批量合成降低了950%。拟议的项目将提高保真度，进一步扩大生产量，后处理和稳定最终产品，并对其光学性能进行基准测试。由此产生的生产规模的反应器将有能力提供LFA制造商随时可用，先进的彩色标签。它将通过创建具有良好控制的物理特性的高性能等离子体纳米结构的一致商业供应来实现新的研究和新的纳米器件。 用于使用点测试应用的中空金属纳米颗粒的制造也将为其扩展到其他行业铺平道路，这些行业也将受益于其有利的光学和光热等离子体特性，例如生物降解，水净化，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进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。