CAREER: Hierarchically-Structured, Ultra-Thin Inorganic Membranes

CBET-1351613Snyder这一职业计划的主要变革性科学影响将是开发新颖且可扩展的策略，将碳分子筛(CMS)膜厚降低到前所未有的纳米级水平，从而使通量和工业相关选择性提高数量级。对关键的合成-结构-功能关系的基本阐明将进一步定义智能价值，这些关系支配着纳米尺度的限制如何通过其对CMS微观结构的控制，作为调节CMS织构的强大把手，从而实现选择性。该项目的成功将为CMS膜的合成模式带来革命性的转变，为材料结构和功能之间的可调协同效应建立新的见解，从而为CMS膜乃至相关无机膜实现性能上的巨大飞跃奠定基础，以满足并超过工业生存能力的要求。这一职业计划的背后是希望在材料合成和分子水平的理解之间建立协同效应，以实现合理的材料设计。由此产生的层次化结构材料和对膜运输的机械洞察应该会在膜技术和应用中产生新的合成范例，其影响广泛，如传感、催化和存储。更广泛影响的重点将是开发一种新型的三层(即插图引导的演示-评估)基于探究的学习模块，名为“分子交通控制”，该模块将应用HEXBUG Nano®S进行分子扩散和相互作用的宏观演示。一个多层次的实施战略将利用这一模块进行越来越广泛的传播，首先是当地中学的科学课堂和周六的科学/数学学院(STAR学院)，该学院由一群具有文化多样性、社会经济困难的学生组成。随后计划扩展到所有中学科学课程、地区科学课程，并最终在面向学生、教师和家长的区域科学博览会上实施。该职业计划还将直接和间接地影响参与拟议工作的研究生，为他们提供膜/传输现象、材料合成和材料表征领域的知识的广度和深度。

CBET-1351613SnyderThe primary transformative scientific impact of this CAREER program will be the development of novel and scalable strategies for reducing carbon molecular sieve (CMS) film thickness to unprecedented nanometer-scale levels for orders of magnitude improvement in flux and industrially relevant selectivities. The intellectual merit will be further defined by the fundamental elucidation of critical synthesis-structure-function relations governing how nanoscale confinement, through its control of CMS microstructure, can serve as a powerful handle for tuning CMS texture and thus selectivity. Success of this program will create a transformative shift in the paradigm for CMS membrane synthesis, establish new insights into tunable synergies between material structure and function, and, thereby, set the stage for CMS membranes, and even related inorganic membranes, to realize the quantum leap in performance that is required to meet and exceed demands for industrial viability. Underlying this CAREER program is the desire to establish synergies between materials synthesis and molecular-level understanding in order to realize rational materials design. The resulting hierarchically structured materials and mechanistic insight into membrane transport should lead to new synthesis paradigms in membrane technologies and applications as far-reaching as sensing, catalysis, and storage. A keystone of the broader impact will be the development of a novel three-tiered (i.e., illustration-guided demonstration-assessment) inquiry-based learning module titled "Molecular Traffic Control" that will apply HEXBUG Nano®s for a macroscopic illustration of molecular diffusion and interactions. A multi-level implementation strategy will leverage this module for increasingly broad dissemination starting with a local middle school science class and Saturday science/math academy (STAR Academy) composed of a culturally diverse, socioeconomically challenged group of students. Subsequent extension to all middle school science classes, district science classes, and eventual implementation at the regional science fair for students, teachers, and parents is planned. The CAREER program will also impact graduate students involved directly and indirectly in the proposed work by providing them with breadth and depth of knowledge in fields of membranes/transport phenomena, materials synthesis, and materials characterization.