CAREER: Angstrom-Precise Manufacturing Guided by Incommensurate Interfaces and Surfaces in Two-dimensional Layered Materials

这项学院早期职业发展(Career)补助金支持研究在二维层状材料中具有极高(亚纳米级、üngström级)精度的可扩展的加法和减法制造工艺。这项研究产生的新材料加工方法将使美国先进制造业广泛受益，因为新发现的能够以前所未有的长度规模确定和可伸缩地处理物质，从而极大地影响生物制药、光电子和半导体制造等高科技行业。从这项基础研究中获得的新知识提高了制造具有ANGSTRöm精确特征的材料的能力，例如高度均匀的纳米孔、纳米通道和纳米岛阵列，实现了目前通过最先进技术无法达到的最终分辨率和规模。将研究与教育和推广活动相结合，包括开发儿童阅读书籍，以及与代表性不足/贫困的中学、社区大学和退伍军人参与研究活动，共同帮助培养多元化和具有全球竞争力的先进制造业劳动力。不断增长的二维分层材料(2DLM)的多样性赋予了它们作为自下而上、逐层加法和减法制造的最终üngström级构建块的多功能性，具有原子精度和几乎无限的配置。独一无二的是，2DLMS具有原子薄、各向异性的特性，可以通过无公度界面进行任意的Moiré结构域设计，这为ngström开辟了新的途径-精确的特征图案，对精确的晶格几何形状、原子/分子终止和局部化学计量进行确定性控制。这项研究可以推广到典型的石墨烯、六方氮化硼、过渡金属化合物和大量(M)Xen以外的任意2DLM，研究了通过确定性旋转/平移涡轮层层错位设计的高周期、高精度特征的基本工艺-结构-性能关系。经验研究阐明了与产生大规模平行特征的高能等离子体物种的自限和空间选择性化学功能化(加法)和蚀刻(减法)反应的机制，例如高度单一分散的纳米孔、纳米通道(减法)和纳米岛(加法)的大规模阵列。这种方法的可扩展性是通过将观察到的现象从纳米/微米级的样品转化为厘米级的2DLM板材的加工来进行的，通过逆向设计获得所需的精确形貌，并通过对工艺参数和计量数据进行培训的机器学习模型进行指导。由此产生的在2DLMS中操纵和制造üngström-Precision特征的能力为定制分子筛和超高密度设备和仪器平台提供了新的途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant supports the investigation of scalable additive and subtractive manufacturing processes with extreme (sub-nanometer, Ångström-scale) precision in two-dimensional layered materials. Novel materials processing methods stemming from this research will broadly benefit U.S. advanced manufacturing through newfound ability to deterministically and scalably manipulate matter at unprecedented length scales, thereby greatly impacting high-technology sectors such as biopharmaceuticals, optoelectronics, and semiconductor manufacturing. The resulting new knowledge from this fundamental research advances capabilities to manufacture materials with Ångström-precise features, such as highly-uniform nano-pore, nano-channel, and nano-island arrays, achieving ultimate resolution and scales not currently attainable through state-of-the-art techniques. The integration of research with educational and outreach initiatives, including the development of children’s read-along books and research engagement with underrepresented/underprivileged middle-school, community college and veteran students, collectively help foster the training of a diverse and globally-competitive advanced manufacturing workforce. The ever-growing diversity of two-dimensional layered materials (2DLMs) endows their versatility as the ultimate Ångström-scale building blocks for bottom-up, layer-by-layer additive and subtractive manufacturing with atomic precision and nearly limitless configurations. Uniquely, the atomically-thin, anisotropic nature of 2DLMs enables arbitrary engineering of Moiré domains via incommensurate interfaces, which opens novel routes for Ångström-precise feature patterning with deterministic control over the exact lattice geometry, atomic/molecular terminations, and local stoichiometries. Generalizable to arbitrary 2DLMs beyond the prototypical graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, transition-metal compounds, and numerous (M)Xenes, this research investigates the fundamental process-structure-property relations of highly-periodic, Ångström-precise features engineered via deterministic rotational/translational turbostratic misalignment. Empirical studies elucidate the mechanisms underlying the self-limiting and spatially-selective chemical functionalization (additive) and etching (subtractive) reactions with energetic plasma species that yield massively-parallel features, such as large-scale arrays of highly monodispersed nano-pores, nano-channels (subtractive), and nano-islands (additive). Scalability of this methodology is investigated through translating phenomena observed from nano/micron-scale samples to the processing of centimeter-scale 2DLM sheets, with the desired Ångström-precise morphologies informed through inverse design guided by machine learning models trained on process parameters and metrology data. The resulting capabilities to manipulate and manufacture Ångström-precise features in 2DLMs provide new pathways toward tailored molecular sieves and ultra-high-density devices and instrumentation platforms.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.