Scalable, versatile surface engineering through photo-initiated chemical vapour deposition

通过光引发化学气相沉积进行可扩展、多功能的表面工程

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05378
• 负责人: Tavares, Jason
• 金额: $ 3.35万
• 依托单位: École Polytechnique de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=753759
• 关键词: Scalable; versatile; surface; engineering; through

Surface engineering alters our first interaction with a material - it affects wettability, corrosion, refractive index, thermal conductivity, dispersion (for particles) and adhesion. It is exploited in a wide variety of industries, from aerospace to microelectronics, but scalable techniques for its implementation remains out-of-reach for applications with tighter profit margins, such as agriculture, water capture, 3D printing, etc. The long-term objective of our research aims to democratize surface engineering by developing new and innovative approaches for scalable treatment. Over the past years, our team has spearheaded the development of photo-initiated chemical vapour deposition (PICVD), an atmospheric pressure, solvent-free, gas-phase approach that functionnalizes a wide variety of surfaces (e.g. metal, polymers, wood, nanomaterials), using commercially ubiquitous UVC light sources and affordable syngas (CO, H2). This scalable approach has attracted the attention of multiple industrial partners and led to valuable collaborations, namely because it can form a strong covalent bond without solvent-based chemistry (often complex, multi-step, with toxic reagents), and without the shortcomings of thermally-activated CVD (heat-sensitive substrates) or plasma-enhanced CVD (expensive infrastructure and operating conditions). It also avoids the use of costly, low-wavelength vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) lamps, privileged by the pioneers of PICVD, and their related shortcomings (similar to plasma). To accelerate transfer to Canadian companies, key scientific and engineering challenges must be met, namely with regards to refine the process kinetics, reduce the environmental footprint and increase the range of functional groups possible. We aim to meet these short-term objectives through 3 high-impact PhD projects over the next 5 years: (1) Synthesize photo-sensitive compounds from CO and H2 to promote reaction initiation. Metal carbonyls are the first targets for this project, given that iron pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)5) has already shown that it affects our reactions (impact: increase treatment speed and repeatability); (2) Photo-reduce CO2 with UVC light (potentially from mercury-free LED lamps) and affordable catalysts to generate CO or photo-sensitive compounds, thereby leveraging the surface engineering process to sequester and utilize carbon (impact: reduce footprint); (3) Graft functional sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds onto PICVD-treated surfaces to promote selective attachment of molecules (such as proteins) - this has never been accomplished through atmospheric photo-processing (impact: increase applications). Accomplishing these objectives will lead to major impact in the economy, specifically through effects in the manufacturing sector (where thin films and coatings are a multi-billion-dollar industry) and through training of highly qualified personnel (3 PhDs, 10 undergrads) with high-value skills transferrable to Canadian industry.

表面工程改变了我们与材料的第一次相互作用——它影响润湿性、腐蚀、折射率、导热性、分散性（对于颗粒）和粘附力。它被广泛应用于从航空航天到微电子等各个行业，但对于利润率较低的应用（例如农业、水捕获、3D 打印等）来说，其实施的可扩展技术仍然遥不可及。我们研究的长期目标是通过开发可扩展处理的创新方法来实现表面工程的民主化。在过去的几年里，我们的团队率先开发了光引发化学气相沉积 (PICVD)，这是一种大气压、无溶剂、气相方法，可使用商业上普遍存在的 UVC 光源和经济实惠的合成气（CO、H2）对各种表面（例如金属、聚合物、木材、纳米材料）进行功能化。这种可扩展的方法吸引了多个工业合作伙伴的注意，并带来了有价值的合作，即因为它可以形成牢固的共价键，而无需基于溶剂的化学反应（通常是复杂的、多步骤的、有毒试剂），并且没有热激活CVD（热敏基材）或等离子体增强CVD（昂贵的基础设施和操作条件）的缺点。它还避免了使用 PICVD 先驱所青睐的昂贵的低波长真空紫外 (VUV) 灯及其相关缺点（类似于等离子体）。为了加速向加拿大公司的转​​移，必须应对关键的科学和工程挑战，即改进工艺动力学、减少环境足迹并增加可能的功能组范围。我们的目标是在未来 5 年内通过 3 个高影响力的博士项目来实现这些短期目标：(1) 从 CO 和 H2 合成光敏化合物以促进反应引发。鉴于五羰基铁 (Fe(CO)5) 已表明它会影响我们的反应（影响：提高处理速度和可重复性），因此金属羰基化合物是该项目的首要目标； (2) 利用 UVC 光（可能来自无汞 LED 灯）和经济实惠的催化剂来光还原 CO2，以生成 CO 或光敏化合物，从而利用表面工程工艺来封存和利用碳（影响：减少足迹）； (3) 将功能性含硫和含氮化合物接枝到经过 PICVD 处理的表面上，以促进分子（例如蛋白质）的选择性附着——这是通过大气光处理从未实现过的（影响：增加应用）。实现这些目标将对经济产生重大影响，特别是通过对制造业（薄膜和涂料是价值数十亿美元的产业）的影响以及通过培训高素质人才（3 名博士，10 名本科生）以及可转移到加拿大工业的高价值技能。