STTR Phase I: Electrode Materials and Processes for Atmospheric Pressure, Continuous Manufacturing of Multi-Layer Capacitors

这项小型企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响是改进用于交通系统电气化的电力转换设备中的电容器技术。电容器是加速从石油到其他燃料的能源转换所需系统的关键部件。该项目将为电容器开发新的电气材料和生产工艺。新的电气材料的配方对人类和环境的危害较小，同时也与更高效的制造工艺兼容。该技术的好处包括加快电动汽车的充电速度，减小车载电池的尺寸，从而降低电动汽车制造的成本和对环境的影响。降低成本将使更多的人能够使用电动汽车。通过开发这些新的电极材料和工艺，美国的电容器制造将为不断增长的美国电动汽车行业提供服务。这项工作的目标是开发电极材料和卷对卷工艺，与多层电容器产品的集成、连续制造工艺相兼容。通过在卷对卷系统中结合增材制造工艺，交替介质层和电极层的顺序沉积、干燥和固化将使在大气压下在单个系统中生产多层电容器成为可能。柔性/混合电子产品中使用的电极油墨和印刷工艺不符合取代电容器应用中基于真空的薄电极层蒸发或溅射的规范。主要的方法是将电介质的涂层和对准技术应用于导电材料。这些电极材料将改进颗粒之间界面差的最先进的导电油墨，以产生均匀厚度和低表面粗糙度的致密层。该项目旨在提供在离散处理步骤中生产的多层电容器的原型，以验证电气性能。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。

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to improve capacitor technology in power conversion equipment used to electrify our transportation systems. Capacitors are critical components to the systems needed to accelerate the energy transition from petroleum to other fuels. This project will develop new electrical materials and production processes for capacitors. The new electrical materials are formulated to be less hazardous to humans and the environmental while also being compatible with more efficient manufacturing processes. Benefits of the proposed technology include faster charging rates of electric vehicles and reduced sizes of on-board batteries, which lowers the cost and environmental impact of electric vehicle manufacturing. Reduced costs will allow a broader population access to electric vehicles. Through development of these new electrode materials and processes, manufacturing of capacitors in the United States will be available to serve the growing US electric vehicle industry.This goal of the proposed work is to develop electrode materials and roll-to-roll processes compatible with an integrated, continuous manufacturing process for multilayer capacitor products. By combining additive manufacturing process in a roll-to-roll system, sequential deposition, drying, and curing of alternating layers of dielectrics and electrodes will enable production of multilayer capacitors in a single system at atmospheric pressure. Electrode inks and printing processes used in flexible/hybrid electronics do not meet the specifications to replace vacuum-based evaporation or sputtering of thin electrode layers for capacitor applications. The primary approach will be based on adapting the layer coating and alignment techniques developed for dielectrics to conductive materials. These electrode materials will improve upon state-of-the-art conductive inks with poor interfaces between particles to produce dense layers with uniform thickness and low surface roughness. This project seeks to provide prototyping of multilayer capacitors produced in discrete processing steps for verification of electrical performance.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.