Ray H. Baughman - US grants

This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 05-610, category NIRT. One objective of this work is to provide science and technology enabling eventual commercial production of carbon nanotube yarns and sheets having close to the mechanical, electrical, and thermal transport properties of the component individual nanotubes. The approach taken is solid-state processing, since this is the only method that is applicable for the ultra-long nanotubes needed for realizing the spectacular inherent properties of individual nanotubes. Another objective is to add higher levels of hierarchal assembly that are optimized for active device applications. While applications focus will be on artificial muscles, project advances will benefit diverse applications demonstrated for these nanotube yarns or sheets: light emitting diodes, organic and electrochemical solar cells, polarized sheet incandescent light sources, cold electron emission displays and lamps, transparent conducting applique's, thermal electrochemical harvesting, and yarn supercapacitors. The last objective of developing a rational synthetic route to carbon nanotubes of one type, by crystal-based reactions that are an alternative to poorly controllable gas-phase-based nanotube growth processes, will increase fundamental understanding of crystal-controlled solid-state polymerization reactions, chemical transformations dominated by three-dimensional covalent connectivity, and enable bulk property characterizations for nanotubes of one type.
Nano@Border, NanoScout, NanoExplorer, and NanoInventor programs will benefit minorities, very young students, the retired and unemployed, as well as encourage people with quite different backgrounds to work together on interdisciplinary teams in frontier areas. Project funding will expand these educational activities, and bring women and Hispanics to work on the project. Our project collaborations with Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Nokia, the NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc., Hyperion Catalysts International, Eeonyx Corporation, and other companies will both accelerate project progress, and help provide clear paths for commercialization of project discoveries.

I/UCRC for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems

1035042 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Daniel Inman
1035024 University of Texas, Dallas; Bruce Gnade

The Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems ((CEHMS) will focus on recovery (harvesting) of unused energy from various sources such as radio and television towers, satellites and various portable electronics. Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VT) and the University of Texas, Dallas (UTD) are collaborating to establish the proposed center, with VT as the lead institution.

The proposal seeks a grant for a new multi-university Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems to focus on energy harvesting approaches. The focus of research within this center will be to investigate a wide range of potential energy harvesting opportunities in power systems, human activity, industrial machines, vehicles, vibrating structures and other such sources. While the energy harvested in any one of the opportunities is small, the accumulation effect can be very significant. The proposed researchers have identified some unique and creative opportunities to assess the value and potential for harvesting energy that would otherwise be untapped. The research is important to the US and much of the world in efforts to capture new sources of energy. The reduction in dependence on foreign oil is always of significant value. The PIs have excellent credentials for conducting the research effort, and the involvement of a number of qualified researchers from the two collaborative universities is impressive. The proposal is very well written and the project descriptions are clear and well documented. The research tasks are appropriate and appear to be very well conceived.

The proposed Center has the potential to improve sustainability and profitability of US manufacturing firms by developing new technologies that will reduce energy consumption and harvest energy that is normally wasted. The proposal uses a diverse group of researchers to develop new technologies that can be used in developing new industries, new jobs, new products and new services in the future. The research team is made up of various ethnic and gender groups that have a variety of educational and professional experiences including minority and disadvantage groups. The technologies that are developed by this proposal have the potential to have a large economical impact by producing jobs in new industries and reducing the need for existing fossil fuels. The plan for involving underrepresented students and faculty in the center is very well presented and appropriate. The research program will enhance the already impressive infrastructure at the two universities. Because of the wide range of topics, the dissemination of the results will be primarily through publications and industry meeting. The students involved with the program will be well prepared to enter the workforce and provide additional technology transfer.

This Major Research Instrumentation award will support the acquisition of a 4-dimensional (4D) micro-computed tomography system with capability for fast time-resolved observation of three-dimensional (3D) internal structures at different length scales. While extensive equipment exists for morphology characterization at nano- and microscales, the University of Texas at Dallas lacks instrumentation to observe in-situ internal 3D microstructures, particularly under deformation. The proposed system will advance the institution's research capabilities by providing non-destructive time-resolved 3D structures, critical for development of new materials, and understanding the mechanical behavior under service conditions for critical load-bearing applications. The acquisition of the 4D micro-tomography system will enable a wide range of new research activities with impacts from aerospace to biomedical applications, including low-density high strength composites, bioinspired robots, and 3D printed shape memory polymers. This equipment will enhance the training of graduate and undergraduate students, including a substantial number of underrepresented minority and women students, and will support student science projects at nearby high schools. The proposed system will advance university research capabilities, leading to enhanced economic development in the fast growing Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area and the nation.

The 4D computed micro-tomography system can be used on a range of materials from soft polymers, composites, metallic foams, to ceramics. The large scanning area allows a loading frame to apply high loads to a sample during in-situ scanning. A fast computer allows control of the system, positioning of a sample, and 3D volumetric image reconstruction from radiographs. The system provides unprecedented capability to observe internal structures with exceptionally high resolution without serial sectioning--allowing in-situ micro-tomography while a sample is deformed. The system will enable fundamental research ranging from scalable nanomanufacturing processes for low-density and high strength composites using carbon nanotube sheets, to lighter, stronger bioinspired robots, and 3D printed polymer composites embedded with micro or nanoparticles to remotely trigger local heating and shape memory effects.

Low-density, high strength composites play a critical role in a wide range of technological areas including aerospace, defense, sports, transportation, and renewable energy. One of the most important classes of low-density materials is polymer matrix composites, which are now used as primary structural materials for large airliners, and in other applications, such as wind turbines and ship structures. The use of nanostructured reinforcements in composites has been shown to improve strength, resulting in structural weight reduction, thereby leading to fuel savings and reduced ecological impact. There is an increasing interest and a strong need for nanomanufacturing technologies for making the nanostructured reinforcement materials and their composites that are scalable in throughput and quantity. Through this Scalable NanoManufacturing (SNM) award, an interdisciplinary research team will work with industry to develop a continuous nanomanufacturing process to fabricate light-weight, high-strength structural composites. Nanometer thick carbon nanotube fabric will be wrapped around individual fibers to create "fuzzy" carbon fibers to enhance their bonding strength with the surrounding polymer. The nanostructured composites will be tested to evaluate their performance under service environments. The use of the carbon nanotube fabric wrapped carbon fiber composites can potentially reduce the structural weight of aircraft, increase energy efficiency and reduce travel time. This project will make an important contribution to the continued success of the NanoExplorer program. A large number of high school and college students will be involved in all aspects of this multi-disciplinary project. Efforts will be made to recruit students from minority and under-represented groups.

In this project, a continuous nanomanufacturing line will be designed, built and assembled to wrap individual fibers with carbon nanotube fabric, without degrading in-plane carbon fiber properties. The concept of "false twist" will be employed to scale-up the wrapping process and make it fully automatic. The individually wrapped "fuzzy" fibers will be subsequently consolidated to form a tow of fibers. The fiber tows will be impregnated in polymer to form prepregs, which will then be stacked and fully cured to prepare composite laminates. The laminates will be characterized for thermal stability and mechanical behavior. The nanomanufacturing process as well as the material preparation configurations will be investigated through computer simulations and models. The successful completion of the project will provide a unique scalable nanomanufacturing process to provide composites with significantly enhanced interfacial shear and compressive strength without degrading fiber tensile properties.