SNM: Scalable Manufacturing of Unique Hexaboride Nanomaterials for Advanced Energy Generation and Gas Storage Applications

非技术描述：该项目的目标是探索独特的纳米级硼化物材料的可扩展制造和基本行为，用于几种与工业相关的关键技术，特别是在能源生产和气体储存应用方面。该项目侧重于用于连续和规模化生产硼化物材料的两种新的和互补的加工技术(用于生产硼化物粉末的溶液燃烧合成和用于粉末固结的放电等离子烧结)，以及能够消除这些先进材料最终可制造性的放大过程中的关键障碍的基础研究。该项目涉及社区大学生的参与以及与工业伙伴的合作。技术细节：该项目的目的是创造、合理设计、优化和规模化制造各种长度尺度的硼化物纳米材料，从原子级晶界工程到这些材料的宏观物理行为。这是一项综合努力，将把理论和建模方法融合到材料加工领域的最新实验发展中，包括溶液燃烧合成和放电等离子烧结。该项目是第一个研究(I)用于生产硼化物纳米材料的燃烧合成过程的规模，(Ii)设计和实施放电等离子烧结连续制造块体样品的过程，(Iii)优化各种六硼化物化合物在电场中的扩散行为和气体存储能力，以及(Iv)将实验工作与分子模拟技术相结合来研究离子和气体在六硼化物中的扩散。

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The goal of this project is to explore the scalable manufacturing and fundamental behavior of unique nanoscale boride materials for applications in several industrially-relevant and critical technologies, with a special emphasis on energy generation and gas storage applications. This project focuses on two novel and complementary processing techniques for the continuous and scaled manufacturing of boride materials (solution combustion synthesis for production of the boride powders and spark plasma sintering for consolidation of the powders), as well as on fundamental studies that can eliminate critical roadblocks during scale-up for the eventual manufacturability of these advanced materials. The project involves the participation of community college students, as well as collaborations with industrial partners.TECHNICAL DETAILS: The purpose of this project is the creation, rational design, optimization, and scaled manufacturing of boride nanomaterials at a variety of length scales, from atomic level grain boundary engineering to macroscopic physical behavior of these materials. It is an integrated effort that will fuse theoretical and modeling approaches to recent experimental developments in materials processing, including solution combustion synthesis and spark plasma sintering. This project is the first study to (i) scale the combustion synthesis process for the production of boride nanomaterials, (ii) design and implement a process for the continuous manufacturing of bulk specimens by spark plasma sintering, (iii) optimize the diffusion behavior and gas storage capacity of a variety of hexaboride compounds in electric fields, and (iv) combine experimental work with molecular modeling techniques to study the diffusion of ions and gases in hexaborides.This project on Scalable Nanomanufacturing (SNM) is co-funded by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Engineering (ENG) Directorates.