Collaborative Research: Multi-functional and Multi-Material Additive Nanomanufacturing: Acoustic Field-Assisted Stereolithography (AFS)

纳米机器的成功开发是实现未来智能纳米机器人、纳米工厂和纳米医学的关键。通过在纳米和显微外科手术，靶向药物输送和环境污染物去除中的应用，纳米机器对日常生活的各个方面以及全球经济的影响预计将是显着的。然而，纳米机器的制造是具有挑战性的，因为难以将多种材料组合或将多个组件组装成三维结构以实现所需的功能。目前报道的大多数纳米和微型机器限于具有球形或圆柱形几何形状的非常简单的设计，因此功能有限，同时需要大量的劳动力、时间和制造成本。该奖项旨在研究由任意分布的纳米尺寸构建块组成的多材料三维物体的可扩展和高效制造。该项目研究了多功能性的出现，通过图案化纳米颗粒定位和通过逐层固化颗粒-聚合物悬浮液来构建3D物体。此外，这项研究推进了多材料结构设计和开发的知识，并为多功能纳米机器的设计，制造和应用开辟了新的科学范式。计划在两所合作大学和当地初中和高中的工程教育中使用增材纳米制造课程模块。特别注意鼓励妇女、残疾人和传统上代表性不足的群体的参与。当前纳米机器的制造方法受到可扩展性、效率以及材料和几何多样性的限制。为了克服这些限制，本项目旨在建立一种新的添加剂纳米制造策略，用于制造3D多材料颗粒-聚合物纳米复合材料，并测试局部纳米颗粒分布可以产生多功能性的假设。研究方法-声场辅助立体光刻-利用声场以宏观到纳米尺度的分辨率对纳米颗粒进行图案化，并通过逐层固化颗粒-聚合物悬浮液来构建3D物体。这项研究将多种物理现象与纳米制造相结合，涉及科学和工程的各个学科，包括建模和模拟，工艺设计和开发，材料和器件表征。该项目有助于增材纳米制造，纳米技术的进步，以及纳米材料和纳米机器的创新。

The successful development of nanomachines is pivotal for the realization of future intelligent nanorobots, nanofactories, and nanomedicine. Through applications in nano and micro surgery, targeted drug delivery, and environmental pollutant removal, the impact of nanomachines on every aspect of daily lives as well as the global economy is expected to be significant. However, the manufacturing of nanomachines is challenging due to the difficulty in combining multiple materials or assembling multiple components into a three-dimensional structure to achieve the desired functionalities. Most currently reported nano and micromachines are limited to very simple designs with spherical or cylindrical geometries and thus limited functions, while requiring a large amount of labor, time, and cost for fabrication. This award investigates the scalable and efficient manufacturing of multi-material three-dimensional objects consisting of arbitrarily distributed nano-sized building-blocks. The project studies the advent of multi-functionality by nanoparticle localization through patterning and building 3D objects by solidifying particle-polymer suspensions layer-by-layer. Furthermore, this research advances knowledge of multi-material structure design and development, and paves the way for a new scientific paradigm for the design, fabrication, and application of multi-functional nanomachines. Course modules on additive nanomanufacturing are planned for education in engineering both at the two collaborative universities and at local middle and high schools. Special attention is given to encourage the participation of women, persons with disabilities, and traditionally underrepresented groups. Current manufacturing methods for nanomachines are limited by scalability, efficiency, and material and geometric diversity. To overcome these constraints, this project aims to establish a new additive nanomanufacturing strategy for fabricating 3D multi-material particle-polymer nanocomposites, and to test the hypothesis that the localized nanoparticle distribution can produce multi-functionalities. The research approach -- acoustic field-assisted stereolithography -- utilizes an acoustic field to pattern nanoparticles with macro-to-nano scale resolutions and build a 3D object by solidifying the particle-polymer suspensions layer-by-layer. This research integrates multiple physical phenomena with nanomanufacturing and involves various disciplines of science and engineering including modeling and simulation, process design and development, material and device characterization. This project contributes to advances in additive nanomanufacturing, nanotechnology, and innovations in nanomaterials and nanomachines.