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.

该项目是根据NSF 01-157（NER类别NSF）的响应而收到的。 这项探索性研究工作将试图实现两种电水动力学（EHD）（EHD）的边界区域（血浆物理学的子学科，这与电场中电动液的行为有关）：纳米福倍的电纺丝纺织品；以及一个大气均匀发光排放血浆（OAUGDP）的应用。 静电纺丝是一种EHD方法，用于生产UT纺织品和非织造开发中心（TANDEC）一直在积极开发的纳米纤维和纳米倍源方法。 最近在UT等离子体科学实验室开发的OAUGDP允许在空气中的一个大气中而不是在真空系统中的低压下产生发光排放。 由直径小于500纳米的链球聚​​合物纤维制成的非织造纳米替代物具有非常柔软的手，比Eiderdown柔软。它们的聚合物材料可回收；这种织物可渗透到空气和水蒸气中，但由于其纤维直径较小，因此不适合微生物或细颗粒。 聚合物纳米替福总物具有高质量服装，过滤培养基和保护性服装的巨大潜力，这些服装对微生物和有毒的颗粒物不了解。 如果不是因为它们相对较低的强度，并且表面能量低，则纳米替代物将制造出出色的服装，从而使他们的润湿性和邪恶性令人不舒服。 我们计划探索OAUGDP对纳米源的潜在应用，包括将电纺纳米源的强度提高到有用的水平；增加纳米源的表面能；使纳米替代物润湿；并通过提高其邪恶性使纳米源性成为服装更加舒适。 这项活动将在田纳西大学的等离子科学实验室（http://plasma.ece.utk.edu）举行，该实验室已建立了超越技术水的优势来开发新技术并将其引入工业实践的声誉。 等离子体科学实验室已经脱离了一家公司，大气发光技术（www.a-gtech.com），以基于Oaugdp的市场技术；至少20家财富500强公司访问了等离子实验室，以进行技术评估。它在OAUGDP及其用途上获得了9项专利；通常，每学期至少有两家公司总裁在等离子体科学研讨会上讲话，以熟悉GRAS和其他同事使用企业家精神。 其中一位PI（P. Tsai）与军队长期接触，并从事过血浆伪装和过滤织物的影响。 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部具有重要意义的可见性。 关于该项目的工作，我们希望在为纺织业的会议和期刊上发布潜在的有用结果。 特别有趣或“经典”的数据将出现在未来的PIS三卷书《工业等离子体工程》的版本中。 这项工作的主题本质上是跨学科的，它将参与电气和计算机工程系的学生以及Tandec所在的人类生态学学院。 这笔赠款的奖励是在一个特别好的时机，因为当它开始时，我们将与斯洛伐克共和国Comenius大学M. Cernak教授的NSF北约博士后助理Jozef Rahel博士一起加入。 Rahel博士将执行一个与当前项目协同作用的等离子体纹理项目。 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。 通常，我们每年将GRA发送给至少一个专业社会会议，向他们的工作介绍一份海报论文。 我们在等离子体实验室的工作人员上有妇女和少数族裔格拉斯，过去十年来我们最好的工作是由妇女gras或博士后同事完成的。 确实，后者之一，金伯利·凯利·温顿伯格（Kimberly Kelly Wintenberg）博士现在是我们衍生公司的首席执行官。 我们试图通过在国际和美国范围内介绍受邀论文，在过去的一年中提出13种此类演讲，从而做出等离子科学和对其的贡献。 我们还维护着一个广泛的网站，可以从中下载9张专利和档案会议的完整文本，并可以下载期刊论文。