MRI: Collaborative Facility for Research on Aerogel Materials

该奖项将加强联合学院机械工程和化学系的教师和学生研究人员的跨学科协作设施-气凝胶制造、表征和应用实验室(AFCAL)。气凝胶是一类陶瓷材料，由溶胶凝胶法制成，然后经过严格控制的溶剂排出。这种制备方法得到了一种多孔纳米结构，其体积约为空气的90%-99%，孔径主要在2-50 nm范围内。这种孔结构使气凝胶的密度、折射率、热导率、电导率和声导率都是任何固体材料中最低的。在联合学院，PI和他们的本科生开发了一种新的快速超临界萃取(RSCE)工艺，该工艺利用液压热压机制造气凝胶整体。使用基于四甲基正硅酸盐的配方，我们已经制备了尺寸为51x51x13 mm的二氧化硅气凝胶整体。这些气凝胶的体积密度低至0.066克/厘米~3，比表面积高达800m~2/g，热导率在30-40 mW/mK范围内，它们在可见光范围内传输20%至90%的光。改进的AFCAL设备将被机械工程和化学系的教职员工和学生用来：(1)研究RSCE工艺和工艺变量对气凝胶材料性能的影响；(2)检查化学试剂对气凝胶材料性能的影响；(3)对气凝胶的机械性能进行建模和表征；(4)制备掺杂发光传感器的气凝胶，用于气凝胶结构的基础光谱研究和作为化学传感器；(5)确定扩大RSCE工艺的必要条件，以生产更多的气凝胶材料并解决任何安全问题；以及(6)探索这些材料的其他应用领域。我们将购买一台自动压力和温度控制液压机，两个临界点干燥系统，以及表征气凝胶的设备，包括高通量三站物理吸附分析仪和材料测试系统，这将使我们能够扩大我们测量气凝胶材料机械性能的能力。扩大仪器能力将使我们能够继续成功地利用AFCAL实验室作为基础跨学科研究的工具。此外，它还将促进与来自联合大学和其他学术机构以及工业界的更多同事的合作。联合学院最近批准了一项名为融合技术(CT)的新的跨学科倡议，从而加强了其对技术和工程的长期承诺。CT计划的目标是将工程学和文科的学生和教职员工聚集在一起，研究传统学科交叉点上出现的问题。这将使学生能够毕业时拥有超出其专业范围的广泛背景。这是在坚持我们对科学和工程基础的承诺的同时，也是在我们文科传统的背景下--在小班和实验室进行教学，教师和学生密切互动，重视本科生研究，并鼓励跨学科工作。这个项目涉及两个传统学科的融合？一个是科学领域的，一个是工程领域的，这将有助于我们将CT重点放在纳米技术上。联合学院化学和机械工程系在介绍学生在其学术生涯的形成阶段进行研究，为学生提供为研究生学习成功提供必要背景的课程，并将这些学生成功地安排在研究生课程和工业岗位上，都有着卓越的历史。因此，这些部门对这个国家的科学基础设施产生了影响。已经有39名机械工程、化学和生物化学专业的本科生与该实验室合作进行了气凝胶相关研究。这些学生中有18名是女性，其中两名是代表人数不足的少数群体成员；其中六名男性是国际学生。80%的高级论文学生已经进入工程或化学相关领域的全日制研究生院。这一奖项的PIs将继续让本科生参与他们的研究，包括来自传统上代表性较低的群体的学生，并鼓励他们的学生考虑在工程和科学相关领域的研究生学习和研究职业。

This award will enhance an interdisciplinary collaborative facility, the Aerogel Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications Lab (AFCAL), for faculty and student researchers in the Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry Departments at Union College. Aerogels are a class of ceramic materials fab-ricated from a sol-gel procedure followed by a carefully controlled solvent evacuation. This fabrication results in a porous nanostructure that is approximately 90-99% air by volume, with pore sizes primarily in the 2 to 50 nm range. This pore structure gives aerogels the lowest known density, index of refraction, thermal, electrical, and acoustical conductivities of any solid material. At Union College, the PIs and their undergraduate students have developed a new rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) process, which utilizes a hydraulic hot press to fabricate aerogel monoliths. Using tetramethylorthosilicate-based recipes, we have fabricated silica aerogel monoliths as large as 51 x 51 x 13 mm in size. These aerogels have bulk densities as low as 0.066 g/cm3, surface areas as high as 800 m2/g, thermal conductivities in the 30-40 mW/mK range and they transmit 20 to 90% of the light in the visible range. The enhanced AFCAL facility will be used by faculty and students in the Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry departments to: (1) study the RSCE process and the effect of processing variables on aerogel material properties; (2) examine the effects of chemical reagents on the aerogel material proper-ties; (3) model and characterize the aerogel mechanical properties; (4) prepare aerogels doped with luminescent sensors to be used in fundamental spectroscopic studies of aerogel structure and as chemical sensors; (5) determine what is necessary to scale up the RSCE process to make larger amounts of aerogel material and address any safety issues; and (6) investigate additional application areas for these materials. We will purchase an automated pressure and temperature controlled hydraulic press, two critical point drying systems; and equipment to characterize the aerogels including a high-throughput three station physical adsorption analyzer and a materials testing system which will allow us to expand our capabilities to measure the mechanical properties of the aerogel material. Expanding the instrumental ability will allow us to continue our successful efforts in using the AFCAL laboratory as a vehicle for fundamental interdisciplinary research. Moreover, it will facilitate collaboration with additional colleagues from Union and other academic institutions and from industry. Union College recently enhanced its long-standing commitment to technology and engineering by approving a new interdisciplinary initiative called Converging Technologies (CT). The goal of the CT initiative is to bring together students and faculty from engineering and the liberal arts to examine problems that occur at the intersections of traditional disciplines. This will enable students to graduate with a broad background that goes beyond that provided by their major. This is being done while maintaining our commitment to science and engineering fundamentals, and in the context of our liberal arts tradition - teaching occurs in small classes and laboratories, teachers and students interact closely, undergraduate research is prized, and interdisciplinary work is encouraged. This project involves the merging of two traditional disciplines ? one in the sciences and one in engineering - and will contribute to our CT focus on nanotechnology. The Union College Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering Departments have a demonstrated history of excellence in introducing students to research at a formative stage of their academic careers, providing students with coursework that provides the necessary background for success in graduate studies, and placing these students successfully in graduate programs and industrial positions. As a result, these departments have had an impact on the scientific infrastructure of this nation. Already, 39 undergraduate students in mechanical engineering, chemistry, and biochemistry have performed aerogel related research in association with the lab. Eighteen of these students are women, two of whom are members of underrepresented minority groups; six of the men are international students. Eighty percent of the senior thesis students have gone on to full-time graduate school in engineering- or chemistry-related fields. The PIs on this award will continue to involve undergraduate students in their research, including students from traditionally underrepresented groups, and to encourage their students to consider graduate studies in engineering- and science-related fields and careers in research.