Nanocomposites and Bio-inspired Nanostructures

该研究计划关注目前世界其他地方无法获得的几种先进纳米结构材料的开发，表征和性能测量。这些包括用于海洋结构修复的高强度和耐腐蚀纳米晶Cu-Ni合金、用作非润湿表面的新型耐用超疏水金属复合涂层、用于电子设备热管理的高导热性Cu-金刚石复合材料以及基于所谓蛾眼效应的抗反射/光学表面。该计划非常强调智能生物启发材料设计，使用自然界中发现的结构作为新工程材料解决方案的蓝图。因此，该计划有一个重要的研究组成部分，涉及生物材料的分析和理解。通过更加关注大自然的独创性来解决相当复杂的问题，该计划建立在申请人及其同事先前开发的非常成功的纳米材料技术工艺平台上。该方法通过使用含有金属盐的水溶液的低温电化学反应来制造纳米晶体金属。对于简单金属和某些合金，该工艺已经转移到工业中，并成功应用于各种行业，如工业腐蚀和耐磨涂层，环境友好的铬替代品，软磁材料和高强度/低重量结构材料。在这个项目中开发的一些新材料将结合几种大自然的技巧来制造具有非常特定功能的结构，例如在总是干燥和清洁的非落叶上发现的结构，或者具有独特光学特性的昆虫眼睛结构。

This research program is concerned with the development, characterization and property measurements of several advanced nanostructured materials that are currently not available elsewhere in the world. These include high strength and corrosion resistant nanocrystalline Cu-Ni alloys for use in marine structure repair, a new class of durable superhydrophobic metal composite coatings for application as non-wetting surfaces, high thermal conductivity Cu-diamond composites for thermal management in electronic devices and antireflective/optical surfaces based on the so-called moth eye effect. This program has a strong emphasis on smart bio-inspired materials design using examples of structures found in nature as a blueprint for new engineered materials solutions. Consequently the program has a significant research component that deals with the analysis and understanding of biological materials. By paying more attention to nature’s ingenuity to solve rather complex problems, this program builds on a very successful nanomaterials technology process platform previously developed by the applicant and co-workers. This process makes nanocrystalline metals by a low temperature electrochemical reaction using aqueous solutions containing metal salts. For simple metals and some alloys this process has already been transferred to industry and successfully applied in various industries such as industrial corrosion and wear resistant coatings, environmentally benign chromium replacement, soft magnetic materials and high strength/low weight structural materials. Some of the new materials to be developed in this program will incorporate several of nature’s tricks to make structures with very specific functions such as found on non-wettable leaves that are always dry and clean or insect eye structures with unique antireflection/ optical properties.