CAREER: Multi-scale Manufacturing of Porous Carbon Nanostructures

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award supports research to improve the ability to manufacture porous carbon nanostructures. These structures can be used for multiple applications, including electrode materials for desalination, membranes for water treatment, solar cells, supercapacitors, batteries, and materials for carbon dioxide capture. The project aims to understand a manufacturing process in which carbon nanoparticles are attached to a scaffold and functionalized, with precise control over the porosity of the resulting structure. If successful, this research will contribute to precision manufacturing processes that will enable these advanced-material applications, which are critical to meeting requirements for future energy and water demands, and to enhance the competitiveness of the nation’s industrial base in sectors like aerospace, automotive and energy. The hands-on education and outreach activities of this project will contribute to the preparation of an engineering workforce with skills specific to the needs of the wide range of industries that will depend on the technologies of these emerging areas. While porous carbon structures have been manufactured for decades, it remains difficult to manufacture these structures with pre-specified porosity. The objective of this research is to address this deficiency by determining the relationship between the parameters describing the manufacturing process and the pore-size distribution of the resulting porous carbon nanostructures. This research takes a two-pronged approach: an experimental component directed at exploring the relationship between manufacturing parameters and pore-size distribution, and a theoretical component aimed at obtaining a unified interpretation of the experimental data with predictive capability. Experiments will be conducted over a range of filler morphologies, filling parameters, and etching parameters to determine the resulting pore-size distributions, with an aim of controlling porosity to within tens of nanometers. The expected result of this research will be a set of validated models explaining the impact of the manufacturing parameters on the resulting pore-size distributions, thus enabling the manufacture of the nanostructures specifically as desired, as well as tests validating the performance of the porous structures for water desalination. This research will provide the groundwork for continued improvement of high-performance nanostructures and future kinetics studies. 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.