Technology development for additive manufacturing of 2D nanomaterial thin films at the air-water interface - phase I

石墨烯和相关的2D材料由于其技术上的重要性质而在世界范围内受到越来越多的关注。它们灵活、坚固、透明、重量轻，并且具有光学和电子特性，使它们适合作为从光电探测器和太阳能电池到更好的电池的各种设备的组件。对于大批量应用，这些材料由天然沉积物制成，例如，加拿大作为自然资源具有大量供应的石墨和铌铁矿石。这些块状晶体被剥离成单层，分别形成原子级薄的石墨烯和二硫化钼片。虽然这些材料有着巨大的前景，但将这些原子级薄的材料可控地组装成器件一直是一个挑战。滑铁卢大学最近的工作，为了解决这一挑战，已经发现当纳米材料漂浮在水面上时，这种材料可以轻松操纵。基于这一想法，所提出的开发努力寻求建立一个增材制造平台（即，3D打印平台），该平台使用空气-水界面作为操纵单层2D纳米材料（如石墨烯、二硫化钼和六方氮化硼）的手段。拟议的原型系统将使2D材料的辊对辊转移和图案化到各种支持基板上，用于各种应用。我们预计，这种新工具将成为一种使能技术，用于将石墨烯和相关的2D材料纳入加拿大资源的增值产品中。拟议系统的强大功能预计将为许多现有的加拿大公司带来新的机会，并可能导致新的企业专注于使用该计划中开发的下一代涂层技术原型创建薄膜和设备。

Graphene and related 2D materials are receiving increasing attention world-wide due to their technologically important properties. They are flexible, strong, transparent, lightweight and have optical and electronic properties that make them suitable as components for a wide range of devices from photodectors and solar cells to better batteries. For high volume applications, these materials are made from natural deposits of, for example, graphite and molybenite ores for which Canada has significant supplies as a natural resource. These bulk crystals are exfoliated into single layers to create atomically thin sheets of graphene and molybdenum disulfide, respectively. While these materials hold significant promise, it has been challenging to controllably assemble these atomically thin materials into devices.Recent work at the University of Waterloo, to address this challenge, has lead to a discovery that such materials can be manipulated with ease when the nanomaterials are floating on water. Based on this idea, the proposed development effort seeks to build an additive manufacturing platform (i.e., 3D printing platform) which uses the air-water interface as a means to manipulate single layers of 2D nanomaterials such as graphene, molybdenum disulfide and hexagonal boron nitride. The proposed prototype system will enable the roll-to-roll transfer and patterning of 2D materials onto a variety of support substrates to be used in various applications.We expect that this new tool will be an enabling technology for incorporating graphene and related 2D materials into value-added products from Canadian resources. The powerful capabilities of the proposed system are expected to lead to new opportunities for many existing Canadian companies and will likely lead to new ventures focused on creating films and devices using next-generation prototypes of the coating technology developed in this program.