Novel multi-functional polymer nancomposites: hybrid nanomaterials based on high aspect-ratio metal nanowires mixed with other nanofillers.

在这个项目中，我们将创造轻质多功能聚合物纳米复合材料，这些材料适合在电子、航空航天、汽车和军事应用中取代金属或高填充复合材料。这些纳米复合材料将基于混合设计，即使用一个以上的纳米填料并与聚合物或聚合物的混合物混合。通过对结构的控制，我们建议对纳米填料进行局域化，从而减少填料的负载，从而降低纳米复合材料的整体重量和成本。我们将使用商用和定制设计的纳米颗粒和纤维来生产重量轻、性能高的材料，这些材料具有独特的机械、电气和热性能组合。特别是，我们的团队有能力制造高深宽比的金属纳米线，可以用于电子领域的纳米复合材料，这些纳米线可以与其他纳米填料或宏填充材料组合，以满足例如汽车、航空航天和军事领域的要求。聚合物纳米复合材料表现出比微复合材料更优越的性能，因为纳米薄膜(尺寸为1-100 nm)与聚合物分子的尺寸相同，因此可以显著改变与聚合物基质的物理和化学相互作用。我们将利用这种独特的纳米材料-聚合物界面，设计包含纳米线或纳米线组合的聚合物纳米复合材料，以及其他高纵横比纳米薄膜，如无机粘土或碳纳米管。这些材料是人们非常感兴趣的主题，因为它们可以使用传统的聚合物加工技术来制造，并且这些材料在大量高科技应用中具有巨大的商业化潜力，如光伏、生物医学、包装、传感器、催化、燃料电池、太阳能电池等。我们的目标是生产在电子、航空航天、汽车和军工行业具有巨大市场潜力的具有多功能性能的新型多填料杂化纳米复合材料。

In this program, we will create lightweight multi-functional polymer nanocomposite materials that are suitable to replace metal or highly filled composites for electronics, aerospace, automotive and military applications. These nanocomposites will be based on a hybrid design, i.e. more than one nanofiller will be used and mixed with a polymer or with a blend of polymers. By controlling the structure, we propose to localize the nanofiller and thereby reduce filler loading and conseuntly, reduce the overall weight and cost of the nanocomposite. We will use both commmercially available and custom-designed nanoparticles and fibers to yield low weight, high performance materials with unique combinations of mechanical, electrical an thermal properties. In particular, our group has the capability to make high aspect ratio metal nanowires that can be used for nancomposites with application in electronics, and these nanowires can be combined with other nanofillers or macrofillers to fill requirements for example, in the automotive, aerospace and military sectors. Polymer nanocomposites display superior properties to their microcomposite counterparts because nanofillers (1-100nm dimension) are the same size as polymer molecules and therefore, can significantly alter the physical and chemical interactions with the polymer matrix. We will take advantage of this unique nanomaterial-polymer interface and design polymer nanocomposites incorporating nanowires or combinations of nanowires and other high aspect-ratio nanofillers like inorganic clays or carbon nanotubes. These materials are the subject of intense interest because they can be manufactured using conventional polymer processing techniques and there is significant potential to commercialize these materials in a large number of high-tech applications such as photovoltaics, biomedical, packaging, sensors, catalysis, fuel cells, solar cells and others. Our goal is to produce novel multi-filler hybrid nanocomposites with multifunctional properties with a significant market potential in the electronics, aerospace, automotive and military industries.