CAREER: Multi-scale Manufacturing of Porous Carbon Nanostructures

这个教师早期职业发展计划（CAREER）奖支持研究，以提高制造多孔碳纳米结构的能力。这些结构可用于多种应用，包括用于脱盐的电极材料、用于水处理的膜、太阳能电池、超级电容器、电池和用于二氧化碳捕获的材料。该项目旨在了解碳纳米颗粒附着在支架上并功能化的制造过程，并精确控制所得结构的孔隙率。如果成功，这项研究将有助于精密制造工艺，使这些先进材料的应用，这是至关重要的，以满足未来的能源和水的需求，并提高国家的工业基础在航空航天，汽车和能源等行业的竞争力。该项目的实践教育和推广活动将有助于培养一支多样化的工程队伍，他们具有依赖这些新兴领域技术的广泛行业所需的特定技能。虽然多孔碳结构已经制造了几十年，但仍然难以制造具有预定孔隙率的这些结构。本研究的目的是通过确定描述制造过程的参数与所得多孔碳纳米结构的孔径分布之间的关系来解决这一缺陷。本研究采取了双管齐下的方法：一个实验组件，旨在探索制造参数和孔径分布之间的关系，和一个理论组件，旨在获得一个统一的解释与预测能力的实验数据。实验将在填料形态，填充参数和蚀刻参数的范围内进行，以确定所得的孔径分布，目的是将孔隙率控制在几十纳米内。这项研究的预期结果将是一组验证模型，解释制造参数对所得孔径分布的影响，从而能够根据需要制造纳米结构，以及验证用于水脱盐的多孔结构性能的测试。这项研究将为高性能纳米结构的持续改进和未来的动力学研究奠定基础。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智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award supports research to improve the ability to manufacture porous carbon nanostructures. These structures can be used for multiple applications, including electrode materials for desalination, membranes for water treatment, solar cells, supercapacitors, batteries, and materials for carbon dioxide capture. The project aims to understand a manufacturing process in which carbon nanoparticles are attached to a scaffold and functionalized, with precise control over the porosity of the resulting structure. If successful, this research will contribute to precision manufacturing processes that will enable these advanced-material applications, which are critical to meeting requirements for future energy and water demands, and to enhance the competitiveness of the nation’s industrial base in sectors like aerospace, automotive and energy. The hands-on education and outreach activities of this project will contribute to the preparation of a diverse engineering workforce with skills specific to the needs of the wide range of industries that will depend on the technologies of these emerging areas. While porous carbon structures have been manufactured for decades, it remains difficult to manufacture these structures with pre-specified porosity. The objective of this research is to address this deficiency by determining the relationship between the parameters describing the manufacturing process and the pore-size distribution of the resulting porous carbon nanostructures. This research takes a two-pronged approach: an experimental component directed at exploring the relationship between manufacturing parameters and pore-size distribution, and a theoretical component aimed at obtaining a unified interpretation of the experimental data with predictive capability. Experiments will be conducted over a range of filler morphologies, filling parameters, and etching parameters to determine the resulting pore-size distributions, with an aim of controlling porosity to within tens of nanometers. The expected result of this research will be a set of validated models explaining the impact of the manufacturing parameters on the resulting pore-size distributions, thus enabling the manufacture of the nanostructures specifically as desired, as well as tests validating the performance of the porous structures for water desalination. This research will provide the groundwork for continued improvement of high-performance nanostructures and future kinetics studies.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.