BRIGE: Scalable Bottom-up Synthesis of Well-defined Diamond Nanowire/Nanotube Arrays

这个扩大参与工程研究启动补助金（BRIGE）赠款提供资金，以开发一种新的自下而上的纳米纤维方法来合成半导体金刚石纳米线。垂直排列的金刚石纳米线阵列将被制造具有良好定义的纳米结构和高纵横比的建议自下而上的纳米加工方法。通过优化工艺参数，控制金刚石纳米线的尺寸和形状。理论工作将进行，以实现对金刚石晶体生长的物理理解，为纳米纤维工艺提供更多的见解。合成的金刚石纳米线将进行实验表征，以揭示其结构-性能和尺寸-性能关系。实验和理论上的努力将实现一个简单和成本效益的技术，大规模制造良好的定义金刚石纳米线阵列。如果成功，这项研究将导致一个新的制造工艺的金刚石纳米线。这项工作中开发的技术将有助于纳米金刚石在各个领域的更广泛应用，如化学传感器，生物测定，光电子学和超级电容器。此外，这项研究将与教育活动紧密结合，以扩大参与工程研究的本科生和研究生谁是少数群体的成员，使他们可以选择在未来的工程职业。通过与校园外展计划的合作，拟议的为期两天的互动式夏季研讨会将为K-12学生提供独特的尖端工程技术实践机会，并激发他们对科学和工程的兴趣。该项目的结果将被纳入课程，并通过NSF年度报告，会议报告和期刊出版物广泛传播。

This Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grant in Engineering (BRIGE) grant provides funding to develop a novel bottom-up nanofabrication method to synthesize semiconducting diamond nanowires. Vertically aligned diamond nanowire arrays will be fabricated with well-defined nanostructures and high aspect ratios by the proposed bottom-up nanofabrication method. The processing parameters will be optimized to control the size and shape of diamond nanowires. Theoretical work will be carried out to achieve a physical understanding of the diamond crystal growth to provide more insights for the nanofabrication process. Synthesized diamond nanowires will be experimentally characterized in order to reveal their structure-property and size-property relationships. Both experimental and theoretical efforts will be implemented to achieve a simple and cost-effective technique for large-scale fabrication of well-defined diamond nanowire arrays.If successful, this research will lead to a novel manufacturing process for diamond nanowires. The technology developed in this work will contribute to wider applications of nanodiamond in various fields, such as chemical sensors, biological assays, optoelectronics, and supercapacitors. In addition, this research will be closely integrated with educational activities to broaden participation of undergraduate and graduate students who are members of minority groups in engineering research so that they may choose an engineering career in the future. Through collaboration with a campus outreach program, the proposed interactive two-day summer workshop will provide K-12 students unique hands-on-experience opportunities on cutting-edge engineering technologies, and stimulate their interests in science and engineering. The results of this project will be integrated into curriculum and broadly disseminated through NSF annual reports, conference presentations, and journal publications.