NER: Increasing the Strength, Surface Energy, and Wickability of Polymeric Nanofabrics by Exposure to a One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP)

NER：通过暴露于单一大气均匀辉光放电等离子体 (OAUGDP) 来提高聚合物纳米织物的强度、表面能和芯吸能力

• 批准号: 0210554
• 负责人: J. Reece Roth
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-08-01 至 2003-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0210554&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NER; Increasing; Strength; Surface; Energy

This project was received in response to the Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 01-157, category NER. This exploratory research effort will attempt to achieve a convergence of two frontier areas of Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) (the sub-discipline of plasma physics that is concerned with the behavior of electrically charged fluids in electric fields): electrospinning of nanofabrics; and applications of the One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP). Electrospinning is an EHD method for producing nanofibers and nanofabrics that has been under active development at UT's Textiles and Nonwovens Development Center (TANDEC). The OAUGDP, recently developed at the UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory, allows glow discharges to be generated at one atmosphere in air rather than at low pressure in vacuum systems. Nonwoven nanofabrics made of elecrospun polymeric fibers with diameters less than 500 nanometers have a very soft hand, softer than eiderdown; their polymeric materials are recyclable; and such fabrics are permeable to air and water vapor, but not to microorganisms or fine particulates because of their small fiber diameter. Polymeric nanofabrics have an enormous potential for quality garments, filter media, and protective clothing that is impervious to microorganisms and toxic particulates. Nanofabrics would make excellent garments were it not for their relatively low strength, and a low surface energy that gives them an uncomfortably low wettability and wickability. We plan to explore potential applications of the OAUGDP to nanofabrics, including increasing the strength of electrospun nanofabrics to useful levels; increasing the surface energy of nanofabrics; making nanofabrics wettable; and making nanofabrics more comfortable as garments by increasing their wickability. The activity will take place at the University of Tennessee's Plasma Sciences Laboratory (http://plasma.ece.utk.edu), which has established a reputation for going beyond the technological water's edge to develop new technologies and introduce them into industrial practice. The Plasma Sciences Laboratory has spun off one company, Atmospheric Glow Technologies (www.a-gtech.com) to market technologies based on the OAUGDP; the Plasma Lab has been visited by at least 20 Fortune 500 companies for technological assessment; it has obtained 9 patents on the OAUGDP and its uses; and it normally has at least two company presidents address the Plasma Science Seminar each semester to acquaint GRAs and other associates with entrepreneurship. One of the PIs (P. Tsai) has long-standing contacts with the Army, and has done work on the effects of plasma exposure of camouflage and filter fabrics in the past. This relationship should assure visibility of any results of this work that are of significance to the Department of Defense or homeland security. With respect to the work in this project, we expect to publish potentially useful results in the conferences and journals that serve the textile industry. Particularly interesting or "classic" data will appear in a future edition of the PIs three-volume book, Industrial Plasma Engineering. The subject of this work is by nature interdisciplinary, and will involve students from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the School of Human Ecology where TANDEC is located. Award of this grant comes at a particularly good time because when it starts, we will be joined by a NSF-NATO Postdoctoral Associate, Dr. Jozef Rahel from Prof. M. Cernak's laboratory at Comenius University in the Slovak Republic. Dr. Rahel will be doing a plasma-textile project that will be synergistic with the current project. It is anticipated that he will take the OAUGDP technology back to central Europe, helping his country recover from the effects of the Cold War. We normally send our GRAs to at least one professional society meeting a year to present a poster paper on their work. We have women and minority GRAs on the staff of the Plasma Lab, and some of our best work of the past ten years was done by women GRAs or postdoctoral associates. Indeed, one of the latter, Dr. Kimberly Kelly-Wintenberg, is now the CEO of our spin-off company. We have attempted to make plasma science and our contributions to it visible by presenting invited papers both internationally and within the USA, with 13 such presentations in the past year. We also maintain an extensive website from which complete texts of our 9 patents and archival conference and journal papers can be downloaded.

该项目是为了响应纳米科学与工程倡议 NSF 01-157，NER 类别而收到的。 这项探索性研究工作将试图实现电流体动力学（EHD）（等离子体物理学的子学科，涉及电场中带电流体的行为）的两个前沿领域的融合：纳米织物的静电纺丝；以及单大气均匀辉光放电等离子体（OAUGDP）的应用。 静电纺丝是一种用于生产纳米纤维和纳米织物的 EHD 方法，UT 纺织品和非织造布开发中心 (TANDEC) 正在积极开发该方法。 UT 等离子科学实验室最近开发的 OAUGDP 允许在空气中的一个大气压下而不是在真空系统的低压下产生辉光放电。 由直径小于500纳米的电纺聚合物纤维制成的非织造纳米织物，手感非常柔软，比鸭绒还要柔软；它们的聚合物材料是可回收的；这种织物可渗透空气和水蒸气，但由于纤维直径较小，因此不能渗透微生物或细颗粒。 聚合物纳米织物在生产不受微生物和有毒颗粒影响的优质服装、过滤介质和防护服方面具有巨大的潜力。 如果不是纳米织物的强度相对较低，表面能较低，导致其润湿性和芯吸性低得令人不舒服，那么纳米织物将可以制作出出色的服装。 我们计划探索 OAUGDP 在纳米织物上的潜在应用，包括将静电纺丝纳米织物的强度提高到有用水平；增加纳米织物的表面能；使纳米织物具有可湿性；通过提高纳米织物的吸湿性，使纳米织物作为服装更加舒适。 该活动将在田纳西大学等离子体科学实验室 (http://plasma.ece.utk.edu) 举行，该实验室因超越技术前沿、开发新技术并将其引入工业实践而享有盛誉。 等离子体科学实验室剥离了一家公司 Atmospheric Glow Technologies (www.a-gtech.com)，以营销基于 OAUGDP 的技术；至少20家世界500强企业曾到访等离子体实验室进行技术评估；已获得9项关于OAUGDP及其用途的专利；通常每学期至少有两名公司总裁在等离子体科学研讨会上发表演讲，向 GRA 和其他同事介绍创业精神。 其中一位 PI（P. Tsai）与陆军有着长期的联系，过去曾研究过等离子体暴露对迷彩服和过滤织物的影响。 这种关系应确保这项工作的任何结果对国防部或国土安全具有重要意义的可见性。 关于该项目的工作，我们希望在为纺织行业服务的会议和期刊上发表潜在有用的结果。 特别有趣或“经典”的数据将出现在 PI 的三卷本《工业等离子体工程》的未来版本中。 这项工作的主题本质上是跨学科的，将涉及TANDEC所在的电气与计算机工程系和人类生态学院的学生。 这笔赠款的授予来得特别好，因为当它开始时，美国国家科学基金会-北约博士后研究员、来自斯洛伐克共和国夸美纽斯大学 M. Cernak 教授实验室的 Jozef Rahel 博士将加入我们。 拉赫尔博士将开展一个等离子纺织品项目，该项目将与当前项目产生协同作用。 预计他将把OAUGDP技术带回中欧，帮助他的国家从冷战的影响中恢复过来。 我们通常每年至少将 GRA 发送到一次专业协会会议，以展示其工作的海报论文。 我们血浆实验室的工作人员中有女性和少数族裔 GRA，过去十年中我们的一些最好的工作是由女性 GRA 或博士后同事完成的。 事实上，后者之一，金伯利·凯利-温滕伯格博士，现在是我们分拆公司的首席执行官。 我们试图通过在国际和美国境内发表受邀论文来让等离子体科学和我们对它的贡献可见，去年我们进行了 13 次此类演讲。 我们还维护着一个内容广泛的网站，可以从该网站下载我们 9 项专利以及档案会议和期刊论文的完整文本。