CAREER: Multi-scale Manufacturing of Porous Carbon Nanostructures

该学院早期职业发展计划(Career)奖支持提高制造多孔性碳纳米结构能力的研究。这些结构可用于多种用途，包括海水淡化电极材料、水处理膜、太阳能电池、超级电容器、电池和二氧化碳捕获材料。该项目旨在了解一种制造工艺，在这种工艺中，碳纳米颗粒被附着在支架上并实现功能化，并精确控制最终结构的孔隙率。如果成功，这项研究将有助于实现这些先进材料应用的精密制造工艺，这些应用对于满足未来能源和水需求以及提高国家工业基础在航空航天、汽车和能源等行业的竞争力至关重要。该项目的实践教育和外展活动将有助于培养一支多样化的工程劳动力队伍，他们的技能适用于将依赖这些新兴领域的技术的广泛行业的需要。虽然多孔碳结构已经被制造了几十年，但仍然很难制造出具有预先指定的孔隙率的结构。这项研究的目的是通过确定描述制造过程的参数与所得到的多孔碳纳米结构的孔径分布之间的关系来解决这一不足。这项研究采取了双管齐下的方法：一是实验部分，旨在探索制造参数与孔径分布之间的关系；二是理论部分，旨在获得具有预测能力的实验数据的统一解释。实验将在一系列填料形态、填充参数和蚀刻参数上进行，以确定所产生的孔径分布，目的是将孔隙率控制在数十纳米以内。这项研究的预期结果将是一套经过验证的模型，解释制造参数对所产生的孔径分布的影响，从而能够特别按照需要制造纳米结构，以及验证用于海水淡化的多孔结构的性能的测试。这项研究将为继续改进高性能纳米结构和未来的动力学研究奠定基础。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.