Multi-Scale Self-Assembly of Nanotube Structures

纳米管结构的多尺度自组装

• 批准号: EP/L025531/1
• 负责人: Michael Franciscus Lucas De Volder
• 金额: $ 12.63万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FL025531%2F1
• 关键词: Multi; Scale; Self; Assembly; Nanotube

Carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene are entering a fascinating era where their physical properties and synthesis methods are understood well enough to attract industry's interest. The latter is best quantified by the production capacity of CNTs, which is increasing exponentially, and has now reached several thousand tons per year. The success of these materials is fueled by applications including CNT-reinforced composites, and battery electrodes. While impressive, these products typically comprise random mixtures of CNTs whose overall properties are limited compared to what is observed in the constituent individual nanotubes. In part, this is because today's CNT products are processed with traditional manufacturing capabilities, such as injection molding and spray coating. Unfortunately these processes do not enable any structural control over the nanoparticle arrangement, resulting in limited material properties. Future commercial success of new nanocarbon applications will largely depend on our ability to engineer the organization of nanoparticle assemblies. In this EPSRC first grant, we hypothesize that understanding of physical and chemical interactions between CNTs underlies the self-assembly of new material architectures with properties superior to random mixtures. More precisely, we aim at developing a methodical hierarchical manufacturing approach where nanoparticle organization is systematically optimized at nanoscale, microscale and macroscale dimensions. For this process to be successful we will first seek understanding of the physics and chemistry of inter-particle forces between CNTs. A self-assembly process will then be optimized which uses these inter-particle interactions as a driving force. More precisely, this project builds on a top-down lithographic process previously developed by the PI, and complements this with a new bottom-up self-assembly approach enabling well-defined nanoparticle organization over large substrates. We envision that the materials developed in this project will be particularly interesting for a variety of diffusion limited processes. These are applications such as battery electrodes, water filters, and catalysis, where the performance of the device is limited by the ability of certain components to diffuse rapidely through the developed material. This can for instance be Li ions in the case of batteries, or water in the case of filters. Unique to the process developed in this project is that it allows for large scale fabrication of CNT assemblies with exceptional control of nanoscale morphology, and micorscale porosity, which is key to engineer the diffusion path. While in depth investigation of for instance battery applications is outside the scope of this project, we will perform preliminary experiments to assess the performance of the developed materials.

碳纳米材料，如碳纳米管（CNT）和石墨烯正在进入一个迷人的时代，它们的物理性质和合成方法已经足够好，足以吸引工业界的兴趣。后者最好用CNT的生产能力来量化，CNT的生产能力呈指数级增长，现在已经达到每年数千吨。这些材料的成功得益于碳纳米管增强复合材料和电池电极等应用。虽然令人印象深刻，但这些产品通常包含CNT的随机混合物，其整体性能与在组成单个纳米管中观察到的相比是有限的。这在一定程度上是因为今天的CNT产品是用传统的制造能力加工的，例如注塑成型和喷涂。不幸的是，这些方法不能对纳米颗粒排列进行任何结构控制，导致材料性能有限。未来新的纳米碳应用的商业成功将在很大程度上取决于我们的能力，工程纳米粒子组装的组织。在EPSRC的第一个授权中，我们假设理解CNT之间的物理和化学相互作用是自组装新材料结构的基础，其性能优于随机混合物的上级。更确切地说，我们的目标是开发一种有条不紊的分层制造方法，其中纳米颗粒组织在纳米级，微米级和宏观尺度上进行系统优化。为了使这一过程取得成功，我们将首先寻求对CNT之间粒子间力的物理和化学的理解。然后将优化自组装过程，该过程使用这些粒子间相互作用作为驱动力。更确切地说，该项目建立在PI先前开发的自上而下的光刻工艺基础上，并采用新的自下而上的自组装方法进行补充，从而在大型衬底上实现定义良好的纳米颗粒组织。我们设想，在这个项目中开发的材料将是特别有趣的各种扩散限制过程。这些应用包括电池电极、水过滤器和催化剂等，其中设备的性能受到某些成分通过开发材料快速扩散的能力的限制。例如，在电池的情况下，这可以是Li离子，或者在过滤器的情况下，这可以是水。该项目开发的工艺的独特之处在于，它允许大规模制造CNT组件，并对纳米级形态和微米级孔隙率进行出色的控制，这是设计扩散路径的关键。虽然深入研究例如电池应用不在本项目范围内，但我们将进行初步实验以评估开发材料的性能。

项目成果

Blue-Green Color Tunable Solution Processable Organolead Chloride-Bromide Mixed Halide Perovskites for Optoelectronic Applications.

蓝绿色可调节溶液可加工的有机氯 - 溴化物混合卤化物钙钛矿，用于光电应用。

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02369
• 发表时间: 2015-09-09
• 期刊: Nano letters
• 影响因子: 10.8
• 作者: Sadhanala A;Ahmad S;Zhao B;Giesbrecht N;Pearce PM;Deschler F;Hoye RL;Gödel KC;Bein T;Docampo P;Dutton SE;De Volder MF;Friend RH
• 通讯作者: Friend RH