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

微纳米颗粒比表面积和孔径分布的精确测量与分析

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00500
• 负责人: Kholghy, MohammadReza
• 金额: $ 10.93万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 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=759518
• 关键词: Precise; Measurement; Analysis; Specific; Surface

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.

纳米颗粒正在彻底改变许多行业，包括医疗诊断，环境传感和温室气体转化。它们通常是通过湿化学技术在实验室制造的，这些技术复杂，耗时且昂贵。然而，事实证明，火焰合成是最可扩展的，通常用于纳米颗粒的商业生产：碳黑色（$ 13B/年），烟雾SIO2（$ 3.5B/Year）和色素TIO2（$ 21B/年）。卡尔顿大学（Carleton University）是安大略省唯一的火焰喷雾反应堆的所在地，该反应堆用于量身定制具有直接工业相关性的纳米颗粒系统。但是，要找到具有所需特性的纳米颗粒系统，例如高表面积，也必须表征许多不同的系统，从而导致瓶颈。此外，卡尔顿的工程和设计学院正在建立化学工程部门和纳米技术中心。只有在这些材料以与合成的相同的速度表征表征的情况下，才能利用设计和合成新的纳米颗粒的能力。 请求的仪器将分析纳米颗粒及其毛孔的大小和表面积。这种表征通常是任何新的纳米颗粒系统的第一步。目前，粒径和表面积表征能力严重短缺。这种短缺导致数据获取和质量的延迟。此外，此类衡量标准目前已外包给不同的政府实验室，每月耗资超过4,500美元。最后，渥太华内的所有其他类似工具都是由技术人员运营的，用于外部要求，使该表征对学生进行虚拟的“黑匣子”。申请人将主要用于两个相互联系的研究主题：碳质材料及其对气候危机的影响和储能。它还将支持四个现有的研究计划以及与世界各地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请求的仪器提供的常规表面积表征中的极端延迟而严重危害。反过来，这否认了加拿大与工业合作伙伴成功合作使经济机会成为可能的。此外，缺乏内部分析仪会否认HQP在进行表征技术方面的宝贵培训机会，并在转变中，损害了他们获得这些工业伙伴对未来职业所希望获得的技能的前景。 该系统将由专用人员维护。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20多名来自不同背景的学员。