Charge driven self-assembly of nanocomposites

在这个项目中，电荷驱动自组装（CDSA）的概念将作为制造由酸功能化聚合物和二氧化硅（或功能化二氧化硅）纳米颗粒组成的纳米复合材料的途径进行测试。研究这些纳米复合材料制成的膜的性能，以期在聚合物电解质膜燃料电池（PEMFC）中得到应用。正在研究的聚合物基质将来自磺酸功能化材料系列，在过去的几年里，我们的实验室与国家研究委员会（ICPET-Ottawa）的科学家合作开发。这项工作将包括对各种二氧化硅和酸功能化二氧化硅纳米颗粒的悬浮稳定性的一些研究。CDSA也将应用于多层薄膜的逐层自组装，这可能会导致一种新的膜制备技术。这项新技术应该很容易扩大到商业规模。

In this project, the concept of charge driven self assembly (CDSA) will be tested as a route for the making of nanocomposite materials consisting of one acid functionalized polymer and silica (or functionalized silica) nanoparticles. The properties of membranes made of these nanocomposites will be examined in view of their possible application in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC). The polymer matrixes under study will be from the series of sulfonic acid functionalized materials developed over the last few years in our laboratory in collaboration with scientists of the National Research Council (ICPET-Ottawa). The work will include some studies of the suspension stabilisation of a variety of silica and acid functionalized silica nanoparticles. CDSA will also be applied in the layer by layer self-assembly of multilayer thin films which may lead to a new technique of membrane preparation. This new technique should be rather easily scaled-up to commercial scale.