Manufacturing Heterogeneous Composite Nanostructures by Layer-by-Layer Deposition and Self-Assembly

对于能够组织纳米级组件的新制造技术的需求日益增加。这些技术将使下一代材料和设备的制造成为可能，应用范围广泛，包括能源、医药和电信。例如，组件可以组织成堆叠或分层的纳米级架构，以创建三维复合材料和结构。纳米级组件也可以进行自组装，在那里它们自发地组织成精确的排列。这项研究将寻求将这两种纳米制造技术结合成一个集成的制造过程。该项目将包括实验和建模，以获得关于如何将这种过程用于工程和设计纳米结构材料的新见解。这项工作的结果将用于教育活动，以展示基础科学和工程研究如何推动技术创新。通过展示基础科学和工程研究如何推动技术创新的外展活动，将纳米制造概念介绍给本科生、高中生和K-12教育工作者。这些活动将旨在让代表性不足的少数民族和妇女参与纳米制造研究。本研究旨在结合层间沉积和自组装的能力，以制造对平面间和平面内组织具有精细控制的堆叠纳米颗粒结构。这项工作的基本主题是在界面存在的情况下合理地设计纳米粒子（NPs）的组装，并利用层内和层间NPs之间的独特相互作用，这将通过实验和建模之间的紧密合作来实现。纳米粒子的相互作用将被控制在多层结构中的每一层内，使用正交聚合物处理来处理堆栈中的特定层。平面间组装将通过设计远程相互作用来控制，这种相互作用可以在堆栈不同层的np之间实现耦合、协同组装。将对装配过程进行定量分析，并开发一个以实验为导向的NP装配预测模型。计算建模也将在理解层内和层间的粒子相互作用方面发挥不可或缺的作用，并将提供一个机会，以获得新的、基本的见解，了解NPs如何以准3d几何形状组装，以及界面对粒子扩散和局部化的影响。这项工作的结果将用于开发一种新的制造工具箱，用于与设备相关的堆叠纳米颗粒聚合物结构。

There is an increasing need for new manufacturing techniques that are capable of organizing nanoscale components. Such techniques would enable the manufacturing of next-generation materials and devices for a diverse range of applications, including energy, medicine, and telecommunication. For example, components can be organized into stacked or layered nano-scale architectures to create three-dimensional composite materials and structures. Nanoscale components can also undergo self-assembly, where they spontaneously organize into precise arrangements. This research will seek to combine these two nanomanufacturing techniques into an integrated fabrication process. The project will involve experiment and modeling to gain new insights into how such a process can be used to engineer and design nanostructured materials. The results of this work will be used in educational activities to show how basic science and engineering research can drive technological innovation. Nanomanufacturing concepts will be introduced to undergraduates, high school students, and K-12 educators through outreach activities that show how basic science and engineering research can drive technological innovation. These activities will be designed to engage underrepresented minorities and women in nanomanufacturing research. This research aims to combine the capabilities of both layer-by-layer deposition and self-assembly to fabricate stacked nanoparticle architectures with exquisite control over inter-planar as well as intra-planar organization. The underlying theme of this work is to rationally engineer the assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) in the presence of interfaces and to exploit the unique interactions between NPs both within and across layers, which will be achieved through a close-knit collaboration between experiment and modeling. Nanoparticle interactions will be controlled within each layer in a multilayered structure using orthogonal polymer processing to address specific layers within the stack. Inter-planar assembly will be controlled by designing long-range interactions that enable coupled, synergistic assembly between NPs in different layers of a stack.
Quantitative analyses of the assembly process will be carried out and an experiment-guided, predictive model of NP assembly will be developed. Computational modeling will also play an integral role in understanding particle interactions within and across layers, and will provide an opportunity to gain new, fundamental insights into how NPs assemble in quasi-3D geometries and the effect of interfaces on particle diffusion and localization. The results of this work will be used to develop a new fabrication toolbox for device-relevant stacked nanoparticle-polymer architectures.