STTR Phase I: Continuous Manufacturing of Mechanically-Robust, Superinsulating Aerogel Monoliths and Thin Films via a New Ambient-Pressure Freeze Drying Technology

STTR 第一阶段：通过新的常压冷冻干燥技术连续制造机械强度高的超绝缘气凝胶整料和薄膜

• 批准号: 2014881
• 负责人: Stephen Steiner
• 金额: $ 22.46万
• 依托单位: Aerogel Technologies, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-15 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2014881&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Continuous; Manufacturing; Mechanically

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to enable affordable manufacturing process for aerogel, an ultralight structural material that can reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of cars, planes, and rockets. Aerogels are a class of ultralight materials exhibiting unparalleled thermal insulation, soundproofing, and energy-absorbing properties. New structurally-durable aerogels can serve as ultralight alternatives to plastics with potential applications in vehicle lightweighting, energy-efficient buildings, and ultralight armor. The proposed work facilitates transitioning these materials to applications and reducing operating costs, reliance on typical fuels, and emissions in the transportation and construction sectors. It will also benefit artificial tissue scaffolds, apparel, bulletproof vests, and energy storage. This STTR Phase I project will advance the translation of aerogels. Manufacturing monolithic aerogels is currently challenging and expensive because of high-pressure batch processing. The proposed work will develop a first-of-its-kind, potentially continuous, accelerated atmospheric-pressure freeze drying technology to enable cost-efficient manufacturing of monolithic polymer-based aerogels of unlimited dimensions. This will require a multidisciplinary approach integrating freeze drying, fluid physics, and nanoporous media in which jet impingement arrays will be used to achieve drying rates approaching a vacuum-based process without requiring a vacuum or pressure chamber. The research will focus on mass transfer phenomena related to removal of solvent from sol-gel-derived nanoporous gel media without damaging the gel's delicate skeletal framework. The research plan includes fluid flow modeling and experiments to demonstrate process feasibility for large-scale translation.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.

该小型企业技术转移（STTR）I期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为Airgel提供负担得起的制造过程，Airgel是一种超轻的结构材料，可以减少汽车，飞机和火箭的燃油消耗和排放。 气凝胶是一类超轻材料，表现出无与伦比的热绝缘，隔音和吸收能量。 新的结构耐磨的气凝胶可以作为塑料的超轻替代品，具有潜在的型在车辆轻巧，节能建筑物和超轻装甲中的塑料。拟议的工作有助于将这些材料过渡到应用，并降低运营成本，依靠典型燃料以及运输和建筑部门的排放。它还将使人造组织脚手架，服装，防弹背心和能量存储有益。 这个STTR I期项目将推进气凝胶的翻译。 由于高压批处理处理，制造整体气凝胶目前具有挑战性且昂贵。拟议的工作将开发出首个，可能连续的，加速的大气压冻干技术，以实现基于单层聚合物的无限尺寸的基于单层聚合物的气凝胶的成本效益。 这将需要一种多学科方法，集成了冻干，流体物理和纳米型介质，其中将使用喷气撞击阵列来实现接近基于真空工艺的干燥速率，而无需真空或压力室。这项研究将重点放在与从溶胶 - 凝胶衍生的纳米孔介质中去除溶剂有关的传质现象，而不会损害凝胶的微妙骨骼框架。该研究计划包括流体流量建模和实验，以证明大规模翻译的过程可行性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估的评估来支持的。