Precise Measurement and Analysis of Specific Surface Area and Pore Size Distribution of Micro and Nanoparticles

纳米粒子正在革新许多行业，包括医疗诊断、环境传感和温室气体转化。它们通常是在实验室通过湿化学技术制造的，这是复杂的，耗时的，昂贵的。然而，火焰合成已被证明是最具可扩展性的方法之一，通常用于纳米颗粒的商业生产：炭黑（130亿美元/年），气相SiO2（35亿美元/年）和颜料TiO2（210亿美元/年）。卡尔顿大学拥有安大略省唯一的火焰喷雾热解反应器，用于定制具有直接工业意义的纳米颗粒系统。然而，为了找到具有理想性能的纳米粒子系统，比如高表面积，人们还必须对许多不同的系统进行表征，这导致了瓶颈。此外，卡尔顿工程与设计学院正在建立一个化学工程系和一个纳米技术中心。设计和合成新纳米颗粒的能力只有在这些材料能够以与合成速度相同的速度进行表征时才能发挥作用。所要求的仪器将分析纳米颗粒及其孔隙的大小和表面积。这种表征通常是任何新的纳米粒子系统的第一步。目前，粒度和表面积表征能力严重不足。这种短缺导致了数据获取和质量方面的严重延误。此外，这种测量目前外包给不同的政府实验室，每月费用超过4,500美元。最后，渥太华所有其他类似的仪器都由技术人员操作，以满足外部要求，为学生提供虚拟的“黑匣子”。申请的仪器将主要用于两个相互关联的研究主题：含碳材料及其对气候危机的影响，以及能源储存。它还将支持四个现有的研究项目以及与全球工业合作伙伴的合作：Monolith Materials（美国）、Vale Inc .、GH Power、Ekona Power和ParteQ GmbH（德国）。所有这些伙伴关系都因所要求的仪器所提供的常规表面积表征的极度延误而受到严重损害。这反过来又剥夺了加拿大与工业伙伴成功合作所带来的经济机会。此外，缺乏内部分析仪剥夺了HQP在进行表征技术方面的宝贵培训机会，并且反过来，损害了他们获得这些工业合作伙伴为未来职业所需的技能的前景。该系统将由专门人员维护。申请人团队由早期职业和成熟的研究人员组成，包括代表性不足和可见的少数群体的成员，他们目前领导着来自不同背景的20多名学员。

Nanoparticles are revolutionizing many industries including medical diagnostics, environmental sensing, and greenhouse gas conversion. They are often made in laboratories via wet chemistry techniques which are complex, time consuming, and expensive. However, flame synthesis has proven to be one of the most scalable, and is typically used for the commercial production of nanoparticles: carbon black ($13B/year), fumed SiO2 ($3.5B/year), and pigmentary TiO2 ($21B/year). Carleton University is home to Ontario's only flame spray pyrolysis reactor, which is used to tailor-make nanoparticle systems that are of immediate industrial relevance. However, to find nanoparticle systems that have the desired properties, such as high surface area, one must also characterize many different systems, leading to a bottleneck. Further, Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design is in the process of establishing a chemical engineering department and a nanotechnology hub. The ability to design and synthesize new nanoparticles can only be taken advantage of if these materials can be characterized at the same pace at which they are synthesized. The requested instrument will analyze the size and surface area of nanoparticles and their pores. Such characterization is routinely done as the first step of any new nanoparticle system. Presently, there is a severe shortage of particle size and surface area characterization capacity. That shortage is leading to significant delays in data acquisition and quality. Further, such measurements are currently outsourced to different government laboratories, costing over $4,500 per month. Finally, all other similar instruments within Ottawa are operated by technicians for external requests rendering this characterization a virtual "black box" to students. The requested instrument will be used by the applicants primarily in two interlinked research themes: carbonaceous material and their impact on the climate crisis, and energy storage. It will also support four existing research programs as well as collaborations with industrial partners across the world: Monolith Materials (USA), Vale Inc, GH Power, Ekona Power, and ParteQ GmbH (Germany). All these partnerships are severely jeopardized by the extreme delays in the routine surface area characterization provided by the requested instrument. This, in turn, denies Canada from the economic opportunities made possible by successful collaboration with industrial partners. Further, the absence of an in-house analyzer denies HQP valuable training opportunities in conducting characterization techniques themselves, and, in-turn, compromises their prospects of gaining skills desirable by those industrial partners for future careers. The system will be maintained by dedicated personnel. The applicant team consists of early career and established researchers, and includes members of underrepresented and visible minority groups who currently lead more than 20 trainees from diverse backgrounds.