Additive Nanomanufacturing of Multifunctional Materials and Hybrid Structures

该基金支持研究，以填补与多功能材料和混合结构的增材制造有关的科学空白，用于从电子和传感到量子材料和器件的应用。虽然各种增材制造工艺能够制造复杂的宏观大规模单材料物体，但由于材料来源有限和缺乏合适的制造系统，纳米级多功能材料（如压电、铁磁、复合材料和混合器件）的打印具有挑战性。该奖项支持基础研究，为创建一个平台提供所需的知识，该平台能够根据需要生成、输送和烧结各种金属、半导体、绝缘以及多功能纳米颗粒，以逐层制造耐用可靠的混合结构和设备。直接在保形表面上生成这种材料和设备的独特能力使这种方法成为能源，生物医学，汽车和航空航天工业中几种应用的有吸引力的解决方案，最终使美国经济受益。这项研究创造了几个学科之间的协同作用，包括制造，材料科学，力学和电子学。多学科的方法有助于扩大不同学生群体在研究中的参与，并对工程教育和熟练劳动力的发展产生积极影响。本研究旨在为增材纳米制造（ANM）奠定实验基础，克服现有的纳米级多功能混合结构和器件的制造障碍。该研究采用非平衡工艺、脉冲激光烧蚀（PLA）和激光烧结来控制各种多功能纳米颗粒构件的合成和组装，使其成为具有复杂功能的混合结构和器件。研究小组的目标是了解原位聚乳酸工艺制造的功能积木的形成过程和结构，并探索其实时激光烧结/结晶成更大的结构。具体来说，本研究旨在阐明i)纳米颗粒是如何通过大气压PLA工艺在气相中形成的，ii)这些纳米颗粒是如何相互作用的，iii)它们的相和结构在激光烧结条件下是如何演变的，以及iv)新兴的工艺-结构-性能关系是什么，使制造具有增强性能的耐用混合结构成为可能。在建立钛酸钡（BTO）和氧化铟锡（ITO）的ANM工艺窗口后，将它们的混合结构和器件印刷在柔性衬底上，以测量它们的机械、电气和压电性能，并确保它们的功能和结构完整性。这项研究揭示了一种新的制造概念，使多功能材料和混合结构的制造能够采用“应用设计”的方法来满足结构和功能要求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This grant supports research to fill the scientific gap pertaining to additive manufacturing of multifunctional materials and hybrid structures for applications spanning from electronics and sensing to quantum materials and devices. While a variety of additive manufacturing processes are capable of creating complex macroscopic large-scale single-material objects, printing of nano-scale multifunctional materials, e.g., piezoelectric, ferromagnetic, composites, and hybrid devices is challenging due to limited source materials and lack of suitable fabrication systems. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for creating a platform that is capable of generating, delivering, and sintering a variety of metallic, semiconducting, insulating as well as multifunctional nanoparticles on demand, to fabricate durable and reliable hybrid structures and devices layer-by-layer. The unique ability to generate such materials and devices directly on conformal surfaces makes this approach an attractive solution for several applications in energy, biomedical, automotive and aerospace industries, which ultimately benefits the U.S. economy. This research creates synergy amongst several disciplines including manufacturing, materials science, mechanics, and electronics. The multi-disciplinary approach helps broaden the participation of a diverse group of students in research and positively impacts engineering education and skilled workforce development. This research aims to establish the experimental foundation underpinning additive nanomanufacturing (ANM), overcoming the existing barriers in fabricating multifunctional hybrid structures and devices with nanoscale features and capable of tolerating service environments. The research employs nonequilibrium processes, pulsed laser ablation (PLA) and laser sintering, to control the synthesis and assembly of various multifunctional nanoparticle building-blocks into hybrid structures and devices that possess complex functionalities. The research team aims to understand the process of formation and identify the structures of functional building-blocks manufactured by in-situ PLA process and explore their real-time laser sintering/crystallization into larger structures in a layer-by-layer fashion. Specifically, this research is designed to elucidate i) how nanoparticles form in the gas-phase by atmospheric pressure PLA process, ii) how these nanoparticles interact with each other, iii) how their phases and structures evolve under the laser sintering conditions, and iv) what the emerging process-structure-property relationships are that enable fabrication of durable hybrid structures with enhanced performance. Upon establishing the process window for ANM of barium titanate (BTO) and indium tin oxide (ITO), their hybrid structures and devices are printed on a flexible substrate to measure their mechanical, electrical, and piezoelectric properties and ensure their functionality and structural integrity. This research unveils a new manufacturing concept that enables the fabrication of multifunctional materials and hybrid structures employing a 'design for application' approach to meet both structural and functional requirements.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.