Collaborative Research: Using molecular functionalization to tune nanoscale interfacial energy and momentum transport

纳米尺度的工程表面将在广泛的未来技术中发挥关键作用，包括饮用水和农业用水的淡化/净化、高效加热/冷却、废热回收、先进的能源产生和储存，以及先进的诊断和治疗等生物医学应用。研究人员试图展示纳米级和分子级的材料特性调整，以创造纳米工程表面，或所谓的“超级表面”。该项目还将通过跨学科的科学、技术、工程和数学教育培养不同的科学家和工程师。将为包括农村、第一代、非传统和西班牙裔学生在内的本科生创建一个本科生纳米科学试点项目。这将为学生，包括代表性不足的群体，提供一个研究的机会，并与主要研究型大学的教职员工和学生建立联系。这个项目的目标是展示一种新的技术，用于分子水平调节界面热导、表面电荷、毛细管性质和固-液界面的生物相互作用，使用一个模型金-烷硫醇-水系统。通过采用高度协同的、集成的实验和理论方法(设计、合成，然后重新设计微尺度表面)，这项研究将促进对混合单层结构、动力学和界面相互作用的基本理解。这些研究将扩展到系统地研究冷却速度和衬底曲率对在平板衬底和纳米颗粒上形成官能化的硫醇结构域的影响。通过展示一种可商业扩展的技术，以纳米精度调整固-液界面传输特性和表面的生物分子敏感性，该项目满足了该领域的重大应用研究需求。这项工作预计将导致开发一种新的纳米级制造范例，用于合理设计可应用于广泛功能分子和衬底的固体-流体界面。此外，它还将探索控制界面传输和与功能化和纳米结构材料的生物相互作用的可能方法。因此，这些研究将提供相当大的交叉科学和技术惠益，这将改善人类生活和健康的整体质量。由于该项目还将建立一个试点合作纳米科学计划，包括来自两个主要本科机构(科罗拉多州梅萨大学和中央华盛顿大学)的学生，这两个机构服务于大量拉美裔、农村、第一代和非传统学生群体，以及圣母大学的学生和研究人员，因此该项目将促进科学劳动力的多样性。具体地说，研究的综合研究和教育设计将有助于学生参与、留住和取得成功。由于COVID大流行，所有三个机构的私人投资机构都在积极参与制定大流行期间机构间和机构内合作研究的计划，规划加强实验室安全，并利用通信信息技术解决方案来减轻大流行对项目活动的干扰影响，同时确保研究人员的安全。最后，通过科罗拉多梅萨大学的尤里卡科学博物馆和小牛创新中心的社区外展和教育活动，个人投资机构将通过创业为地区教育发展和经济发展做出贡献。这一奖项反映了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。

Engineering surfaces at the nanometer scale will play a crucial role in a wide range of future technologies, including water desalination/purification for drinking and agriculture, efficient heating/cooling, waste heat recovery, advanced energy generation and storage, as well as biomedical applications such as advanced diagnostics and therapeutics. The investigators seek demonstrate nanometer-scale and molecular-level tuning of material properties to create nano-engineered surfaces, or so-called “super-surfaces”. The project will also train diverse scientists and engineers through interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, and math education. A pilot undergraduate nanoscience program will be created for undergraduates, including rural, first-generation, non-traditional, and Hispanic students. This will provide students, including underrepresented groups, an opportunity to research and network with faculty and students at a major research university. The goal of this project is to demonstrate a novel technique for molecular-level tuning of interfacial thermal conductance, surface charge, capillary properties, and biological interaction of solid-liquid interfaces using a model gold-alkanethiol-water system. By employing a highly synergistic, integrated experimental and theoretical approach (to design, synthesize, and then re-design microscale surfaces), the study will advance the fundamental understanding of mixed monolayer structure, dynamics, and interfacial interactions. These studies will extend to a systematic investigation of cooling rate and substrate curvature on functionalized thiol domain formation on both flat substrates and nanoparticles. By demonstrating a commercially scalable technique for tuning solid-liquid interfacial transport properties and biomolecular sensitivity of surfaces with nanometer precision, the project addresses significant applied research needs in the field. This work is anticipated to lead to the development of a new nanoscale manufacturing paradigm for the rational engineering of solid-fluid interfaces that can be applied to a broad range of functional molecules and substrates. Additionally, it will explore possible means to control interfacial transport and biological interactions with functionalized and nanostructured materials. Thus, these studies will provide considerable cross-cutting scientific and technological benefits, which will improve the overall quality of human life and health. Because the project will also establish a pilot collaborative nanoscience program including students from two primarily undergraduate institutions (Colorado Mesa University and Central Washington University), which serve large Hispanic, rural, first generation, and non-traditional student populations, with students and researchers at University of Notre Dame, this project will contribute to the diversity of the scientific workforce. Specifically, the integrated research and education design of the studies will aid in student engagement, retention, and success. Because of the COVID pandemic, the PIs at all three institutions are actively engaged in developing a plan for inter- and intra- institutional collaborative research during the pandemic, planning for increased laboratory safety and utilizing information technology solutions for communications to mitigate the disruptive effects of the pandemic on the project activities while assuring researcher safety. Lastly, through community outreach and education activities via Colorado Mesa University’s Eureka Science Museum and Maverick Innovation Center, the PIs will contribute to regional educational development and economic development through entrepreneurship.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.