Collaborative Research: Additive Manufacturing of Optical Hybrid Materials under Extreme Gradients

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Optical hybrid materials (OHM) are emerging systems combining organic (carbon-based) and inorganic (non-carbon-based) components at the nanoscale. These materials can potentially lead to applications in efficient light-emitting diodes, advanced medical imaging, and enhanced solar cells for cleaner energy. However, the manufacturing of OHM remains challenging due to the undesired scattering from the poor design of the matrix-nanofiller interfaces. This NSF project will use a combinatorial printing technique to understand how compositional doping influences OHM hybrid structures and develop a spatially resolved optical analysis system to identify the key factors affecting these materials under extreme material gradients. The successful execution of this research will enable new manufacturing capacities of high-performance optical materials for advanced lenses, lasers, and optoelectronics. The developed system will offer an ideal model for manufacturing and characterizing soft optical hybrid systems that are challenging for the existing fabrication techniques. In addition, the collaboration of two Hispanic-serving institutions (Texas Tech and Texas A&M University) could increase the participation rate of underrepresented groups. The team will actively recruit undergraduate researchers for the project and provide K-12 students with opportunities for hands-on research experience in the multidisciplinary fields of manufacturing science, chemical engineering, and advanced materials. While optical hybrid materials (OHM) hold great promise due to unique optical structures combining the benefits of soft polymers and functional nanofillers, a lack of understanding of polymer-nanofiller interactions at the interface level and subsequent difficulty controlling undesired scattering pose considerable challenges. As a result, it is crucial to develop knowledge connecting nanoscale OHM compositions with their detailed optical characteristics (refractive index, birefringence, etc.). This grant supports fundamental research to understand the effect of dopant compositions and compositional gradients on OHM. The team will leverage the combinatorial printing of structure-programmable nanofillers to understand defects and doping of combinatorial optical materials and their hybrid structures. In addition, a spatially resolved optical characterization system will be developed to identify the key factors controlling the interface-related phenomena and properties of the OHM under extreme material gradients. In this process, the project will quantify the effect of graded optical dopants in polymers and examine the refractive index gradients, birefringence gradients, and photoluminescent gradients (both compositionally and optically). If successful, this method will yield rich knowledge in advanced optical manufacturing and potentially challenge the conventional energy-intensive melting-based or clean-room thin-film deposition approaches for OHM and related devices. 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.