Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Hierarchical Nanometer-Scale Colloidal Assemblies Using Integrated Electrospray and Microfluidics

提供清洁的水和安全的药物输送是巨大的社会挑战。 纳米技术领域提供了解决这两个挑战的方法。 然而，支持这些革命性解决方案所需的纳米颗粒，特别是亚10 nm颗粒的制造受到产量低和生产时间长的困扰。 传统的自组装纳米材料的生产是非常耗时的，由于在颗粒热波动下不期望的和不受控制的颗粒间相互作用，结构均匀性控制不良。该补助金支持基础研究，以开发一种可扩展的纳米制造工艺，用于高通量生产纳米胶体组件。集成快速电喷雾和微流体工艺的新方法解决了目前分层结构纳米材料缓慢和低产率制造的瓶颈。这项研究的成功影响了美国的制造业、经济和安全。该项目独特地整合了多个学科，包括制造，流体力学，材料科学和设备制造。多学科方法有助于招募和培训学生，包括女性和代表性不足的少数民族，作为下一代美国工程师，从而对工程教育产生积极影响。许多制造方法已经利用外部场，例如电场和光场，来克服胶体热波动并指导胶体纳米颗粒的组装。然而，可扩展的纳米制造工艺，以快速和精确地组装10纳米或更小尺寸的纳米胶体，包括贵金属和金属氧化物纳米团簇和（生物）聚合物，仍然很少和具有挑战性。该项目开发了一种集成的电喷雾和微流体制造工艺，以快速浓缩液滴纳米反应器中的无机纳米团簇和聚合物，并通过介电泳控制其分层纳米胶体组装。超快激光光谱与连续微流体过程相结合，以实现在液体介质中构建分层纳米胶体的组合物和组装过程的原位表征。从这项研究中获得的结果推进了复杂纳米材料的纳米级电动力学行为的基本理解。电喷雾和介电泳微流控模块都可以线性放大，成为多组分和结构化纳米胶体组装的高通量纳米制造的先驱。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Providing clean water and safe drug delivery are grand societal challenges. The field of nanotechnology offers ways to address both challenges. However, the manufacture of nanoparticles and, in particular, sub-10 nm particles needed to support these revolutionary solutions is plagued by low yield and long production times. Conventional production of self-assembled nanomaterials is highly time consuming with poor control of structural uniformity due to undesired and uncontrolled inter-particle interactions under particle thermal fluctuation. This grant supports fundamental research to develop a scalable nanomanufacturing process for high-throughput production of nanocolloidal assemblies. The new approach that integrates rapid electrospray and microfluidic processes solves the current bottleneck in slow and low-yield manufacturing of hierarchically structured nanomaterials. The success of this research impacts U.S. manufacturing, economy, and security. This project uniquely integrates multiple disciplines including manufacturing, fluid mechanics, materials science, and device fabrication. The multidisciplinary approach helps recruit and train students, including women and underrepresented minorities, as the next generation of U.S. engineers, thus positively impacting engineering education. Many manufacturing approaches have utilized external fields, such as electrical and optical fields, to overcome colloidal thermal fluctuations and direct the assembly of colloidal nanoparticles. However, scalable nanomanufacturing processes to rapidly and precisely assemble nanocolloids of 10 nm or smaller size, including noble metal and metal oxide nanoclusters and (bio)polymers, remain few and challenging. This project develops an integrated electrospray and microfluidic manufacturing process to rapidly concentrate inorganic nanoclusters and polymers in droplet nanoreactors and control their hierarchical nanocolloidal assembly by dielectrophoresis. Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is integrated with the continuous microfluidic process to enable in-situ characterization of the compositions and assembly process of building hierarchical nanocolloids in liquid media. Results obtained from this research advance the fundamental understanding of nanoscale electrokinetic behavior of complex nanomaterials. Both electrospray and dielectrophoresis microfluidic modules can be linearly scaled-up to pioneer high-throughput nanomanufacturing of multi-component and structured nanocolloidal assemblies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.