Fabrication and Scalable Production of Nanobottles

该补助金支持的研究将创造与制造由不同材料制成的纳米瓶相关的新知识，以及可控的尺寸，形状和开口尺寸。宏观瓶在我们的日常生活中无处不在。瓶子的独特设计为包装、储存和运输提供了方便和方便的直接优势。虽然在工业规模上有成熟的技术来制造由玻璃、金属和聚合物制成的宏观瓶子，但由于缺乏能够处理这种微小结构的工具，因此不可能将相同的技术应用于纳米级（甚至微观）瓶子的制造。这笔赠款支持基础研究，为开发制造纳米瓶的精确和可靠的方法提供所需的知识，这项研究的结果将有利于美国经济和社会。纳米瓶越来越多地用于涉及封装，控释和药物递送的应用，对生物医学和医疗保健产生直接影响。它们还有望实现对环境补救和农业至关重要的化学物质的封装和控制释放。多学科和协作的性质将有助于扩大代表性不足的群体在研究中的参与，为丰富参与学生的教育和培训经验提供一个工具。该研究的成果将进一步用于改进课堂教学，包括开发与材料科学和生物医学工程关键概念相关的演示，例如动画和实验。该研究将重点关注直径为50 - 500 nm的胶体中空颗粒形式的纳米瓶，以及在其他不可渗透的壁上的单个孔。通过用不同的材料涂覆胶体模板的表面，然后选择性地蚀刻掉模板，可以获得其尺寸和形状由模板精确限定的中空颗粒。这种方法已经成功地应用于各种材料，但没有可靠的策略来在中空颗粒的壁中产生良好控制的孔。本研究是填补知识空白的机制（S）的孔产生的溶胀壳涂层模板与溶剂。当膨胀引起的压力达到临界水平时，它会自发地在壳体上戳一个洞以释放压力，并允许膨胀的模板通过开口逸出。这种制造方法可以应用于基本上所有类型的材料，包括陶瓷，金属和聚合物，只要它们可以作为均匀的外壳涂覆在胶体模板上。涂层和溶胀过程都将进行实验研究和理论建模，以建立未来制造纳米瓶所需的机械理解和有见地的指导。在概念验证演示中，纳米瓶将被评估用于封装和控制释放治疗剂以根除癌细胞。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

This grant supports research that will create new knowledge related to the manufacturing of nanobottles made of diverse materials, together with controllable dimensions, shapes, and opening sizes. Macroscopic bottles are ubiquitous in our everyday life. The unique design of a bottle offers immediate advantages in terms of easiness and convenience for packaging, storage, and transportation. While there are mature technologies for manufacturing macroscopic bottles made of glasses, metals, and polymers on an industrial scale, it is impossible to apply the same technology to the fabrication of nanoscopic (or even microscopic) bottles due to lack of tools capable of handling such minuscule structures. This grant supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for the development of a precise and robust method for fabricating nanobottles and the results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy and society. The nanobottles are increasingly preferred for applications involving encapsulation, controlled release, and drug delivery, with immediate impacts on biomedicine and healthcare. They are also expected to enable the encapsulation and controlled release of chemical substances essential to environmental remediation and agriculture. The multi-disciplinary and collaborative nature will help broaden participation of underrepresented groups in research, offering a vehicle to enrich the education and training experiences of participating students. The results from this research will be further adapted to enhance classroom teaching, including the development of demonstrations, e.g. animations and experiments, related to the key concepts of materials science and biomedical engineering.This research will focus on nanobottles in the form of colloidal hollow particles of 50−500 nm in diameter, together with a single hole in the otherwise impermeable wall. By coating the surface of a colloidal template with a different material and then selectively etching away the template, one can obtain a hollow particle with its size and shape precisely defined by the template. This method has been successfully applied to a variety of materials, but there is no reliable strategy for generating a well-controlled hole in the wall of the hollow particle. This research is to fill the knowledge gap on the mechanism(s) of hole creation by swelling the shell-coated template with a solvent. When the swelling-induced pressure reaches a critical level, it will spontaneously poke a hole in the shell to release the pressure and allow the swollen template to escape through the opening. This fabrication method can be applied to essentially all types of materials, including ceramics, metals, and polymers, as long as they can be coated on the colloidal templates as uniform shells. Both the coating and swelling processes will be experimentally investigated and theoretically modeled to establish a mechanistic understanding and insightful guidance necessary for the future manufacturing of nanobottles. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, the nanobottles will be evaluated for the encapsulation and then controlled release of a therapeutic agent for the eradication of cancer cells.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.