Additive Nanomanufacturing of Multifunctional Materials and Hybrid Structures

Auburn University, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

This grant supports research to fill the scientific gap pertaining to additive manufacturing of multifunctional materials and hybrid structures for applications spanning from electronics and sensing to quantum materials and devices. While a variety of additive manufacturing processes are capable of creating complex macroscopic large-scale single-material objects, printing of nano-scale multifunctional materials, e.g., piezoelectric, ferromagnetic, composites, and hybrid devices is challenging due to limited source materials and lack of suitable fabrication systems. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for creating a platform that is capable of generating, delivering, and sintering a variety of metallic, semiconducting, insulating as well as multifunctional nanoparticles on demand, to fabricate durable and reliable hybrid structures and devices layer-by-layer. The unique ability to generate such materials and devices directly on conformal surfaces makes this approach an attractive solution for several applications in energy, biomedical, automotive and aerospace industries, which ultimately benefits the U.S. economy. This research creates synergy amongst several disciplines including manufacturing, materials science, mechanics, and electronics. The multi-disciplinary approach helps broaden the participation of a diverse group of students in research and positively impacts engineering education and skilled workforce development. This research aims to establish the experimental foundation underpinning additive nanomanufacturing (ANM), overcoming the existing barriers in fabricating multifunctional hybrid structures and devices with nanoscale features and capable of tolerating service environments. The research employs nonequilibrium processes, pulsed laser ablation (PLA) and laser sintering, to control the synthesis and assembly of various multifunctional nanoparticle building-blocks into hybrid structures and devices that possess complex functionalities. The research team aims to understand the process of formation and identify the structures of functional building-blocks manufactured by in-situ PLA process and explore their real-time laser sintering/crystallization into larger structures in a layer-by-layer fashion. Specifically, this research is designed to elucidate i) how nanoparticles form in the gas-phase by atmospheric pressure PLA process, ii) how these nanoparticles interact with each other, iii) how their phases and structures evolve under the laser sintering conditions, and iv) what the emerging process-structure-property relationships are that enable fabrication of durable hybrid structures with enhanced performance. Upon establishing the process window for ANM of barium titanate (BTO) and indium tin oxide (ITO), their hybrid structures and devices are printed on a flexible substrate to measure their mechanical, electrical, and piezoelectric properties and ensure their functionality and structural integrity. This research unveils a new manufacturing concept that enables the fabrication of multifunctional materials and hybrid structures employing a 'design for application' approach to meet both structural and functional requirements. 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.