SBIR Phase II: On-Line, Non-Destructive, Rapid Characterization of Nanopowders and Agglomerates

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将进一步开发，测试和展示一种表征纳米级粉末及其团聚体的新方法。纳米结构是一种新型材料家族，其允许定制结构、电化学、电学、电子、光学、磁性和化学性质。使用纳米材料制造有价值的设备和制造新产品在很大程度上取决于在合成，加工和设备生产过程中表征这些材料的能力。目前的高分辨率表征技术是离线的、缓慢的、昂贵的和不可靠的;少数可用的在线颗粒尺寸测量仪器做出了有问题的假设（例如，所有的颗粒都是球形的），这将不必要的误差引入诊断中。该项目的商业应用是使用纳米级粉末，纳米级粉末是各种行业中使用的许多产品的基本组成部分（例如，高级陶瓷、药品、消费品等）。随着技术的发展，应用领域将会增加。在线表征纳米级颗粒和团聚体的能力对于控制产品质量以及新产品和新工艺的发明至关重要。此外，环境颗粒物的表征对于了解空气质量问题和健康影响至关重要-从而改善清洁空气法规和监测。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will further develop, test, and demonstrate a novel approach for characterizing nano-scale powders and their agglomerates. Nanostructures are a novel family of materials that allow customization of structural, electrochemical, electrical, electronic, optical, magnetic, and chemical properties. The use of nanomaterials to fabricate valuable devices and to manufacture new products depends in large part on the ability to characterize these materials during synthesis, processing, and device production. Current high resolution characterization techniques are off line, slow, expensive, and unreliable; the few on-line particle sizing instruments available make questionable assumptions (e.g., that all particles are spherical in shape) which introduce unnecessary error into the diagnosis. The commercial applications of this project is to use nano-scale powders, which are the fundamental building blocks of many products used in a wide variety of industries (e.g., advanced ceramics, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, etc.). As the technology develops, the application areas will increase. The ability to characterize nano-scale particles and agglomerates on-line is crucial for controlling the quality of products and for the invention of new products and processes. In addition, characterization of environmental particulates is critical for understanding air quality concerns and health effects - leading to improve clean air regulations and monitoring.