Precise Measurement and Analysis of Specific Surface Area and Pore Size Distribution of Micro and Nanoparticles

纳米颗粒正在革新许多行业，包括医疗诊断，环境传感和温室气体转化。它们通常在实验室中通过湿化学技术制备，该技术复杂，耗时且昂贵。然而，火焰合成已被证明是最具可扩展性的方法之一，通常用于纳米颗粒的商业生产：炭黑（130亿美元/年），气相二氧化硅（35亿美元/年）和颜料TiO 2（210亿美元/年）。卡尔顿大学是安大略唯一的火焰喷雾热解反应器的所在地，该反应器用于定制具有直接工业相关性的纳米颗粒系统。然而，要找到具有所需特性（如高表面积）的纳米颗粒系统，还必须表征许多不同的系统，这导致了瓶颈。此外，卡尔顿的工程与设计学院正在建立一个化学工程系和一个纳米技术中心。设计和合成新纳米粒子的能力只能在这些材料能够以与它们合成相同的速度表征时才能被利用。 所要求的仪器将分析纳米颗粒及其孔隙的大小和表面积。这种表征通常作为任何新纳米颗粒系统的第一步进行。目前，颗粒尺寸和表面积表征能力严重不足。这一短缺导致数据采集和质量方面的重大延误。此外，这些测量目前外包给不同的政府实验室，每月费用超过4 500美元。最后，渥太华内的所有其他类似仪器都是由技术人员根据外部要求操作的，从而使这种表征对学生来说是一个虚拟的“黑匣子”。申请人将主要在两个相互关联的研究主题中使用所要求的仪器：含碳材料及其对气候危机的影响，以及能源储存。它还将支持四个现有的研究项目以及与世界各地的工业合作伙伴的合作：Monolith Materials（美国），Vale Inc，GH Power，Ekona Power和ParteQ GmbH（德国）。所有这些伙伴关系都因所要求的仪器提供的常规表面积特征鉴定的极端拖延而受到严重损害。这反过来又剥夺了加拿大与工业伙伴成功合作所带来的经济机会。此外，缺乏内部分析仪否认HQP进行表征技术本身的宝贵培训机会，并反过来，损害他们的前景，获得这些工业合作伙伴所希望的技能，为未来的职业生涯。 该系统将由专职人员维护。申请人团队由早期职业和成熟的研究人员组成，包括代表性不足和明显的少数群体成员，他们目前领导着20多名来自不同背景的受训人员。

Nanoparticles are revolutionizing many industries including medical diagnostics, environmental sensing, and greenhouse gas conversion. They are often made in laboratories via wet chemistry techniques which are complex, time consuming, and expensive. However, flame synthesis has proven to be one of the most scalable, and is typically used for the commercial production of nanoparticles: carbon black ($13B/year), fumed SiO2 ($3.5B/year), and pigmentary TiO2 ($21B/year). Carleton University is home to Ontario's only flame spray pyrolysis reactor, which is used to tailor-make nanoparticle systems that are of immediate industrial relevance. However, to find nanoparticle systems that have the desired properties, such as high surface area, one must also characterize many different systems, leading to a bottleneck. Further, Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design is in the process of establishing a chemical engineering department and a nanotechnology hub. The ability to design and synthesize new nanoparticles can only be taken advantage of if these materials can be characterized at the same pace at which they are synthesized. The requested instrument will analyze the size and surface area of nanoparticles and their pores. Such characterization is routinely done as the first step of any new nanoparticle system. Presently, there is a severe shortage of particle size and surface area characterization capacity. That shortage is leading to significant delays in data acquisition and quality. Further, such measurements are currently outsourced to different government laboratories, costing over $4,500 per month. Finally, all other similar instruments within Ottawa are operated by technicians for external requests rendering this characterization a virtual "black box" to students. The requested instrument will be used by the applicants primarily in two interlinked research themes: carbonaceous material and their impact on the climate crisis, and energy storage. It will also support four existing research programs as well as collaborations with industrial partners across the world: Monolith Materials (USA), Vale Inc, GH Power, Ekona Power, and ParteQ GmbH (Germany). All these partnerships are severely jeopardized by the extreme delays in the routine surface area characterization provided by the requested instrument. This, in turn, denies Canada from the economic opportunities made possible by successful collaboration with industrial partners. Further, the absence of an in-house analyzer denies HQP valuable training opportunities in conducting characterization techniques themselves, and, in-turn, compromises their prospects of gaining skills desirable by those industrial partners for future careers. The system will be maintained by dedicated personnel. The applicant team consists of early career and established researchers, and includes members of underrepresented and visible minority groups who currently lead more than 20 trainees from diverse backgrounds.