I-Corps: Plasma Deposition of Metal and Metal-oxide Materials on Flexible Substrates

I-Corps：柔性基板上金属和金属氧化物材料的等离子沉积

• 批准号: 2348546
• 负责人: Mubarak Mujawar
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Florida International University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2348546&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Plasma; Deposition; Metal; oxide

This I-Corps project focuses on the development of a low-temperature, atmospheric plasma sintering method that addresses critical issues in additive manufacturing by allowing the deposition of pinhole free thin films on flexible substrates such as textiles and polymers. The technology supports a wide range of commercial applications across multiple fields, including semiconductor manufacturing, biomedicine, and healthcare. Although there have been multiple efforts to push the limits of current additive manufacturing technologies, one of the major challenges is how to print and control the surface properties of deposited materials on flexible and porous substrates. The technology addresses this issue by enabling selective sintering of nanomaterials on different types of substrates, such as paper, gauze and even human skin, which enables its commercial application in flexible electronics, medical devices, and personalized healthcare. The technology can be used to print a radio frequency antenna on gauze or human skin to monitor the vital parameters of an individual. The technology can also be used to deposit complex electronic circuits on a flexible polymer film, which can be mounted on a drone to reduce the load weight and attain energy efficiency.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a low-temperature, atmospheric plasma sintering method to deposit nanomaterials on flexible surfaces. In this method, the sintering of nanoparticles is carried out in-situ by injecting metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles in the active plasma region of the atmospheric plasma jet. The activation energy provided by the atmospheric plasma and subsequent annealing of nanoparticles by the downstream plasma leads to the formation of a uniform thin film. This technique has been tested for the deposition of gold, silver, and graphene oxide thin films on silicon, glass, and polyimide, as well as screen printed paper electrodes for improving the response of biosensors. The salient feature of the technique is that the process is carried out at ambient pressure and room temperature, which makes the solution advantageous for depositing materials on various surfaces such as paper, gauze, and complex three-dimensional objects.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.

这个I-Corps项目着重于开发低温，大气等离子体烧结方法，该方法通过允许在柔性基材（例如纺织品和聚合物）上沉积针孔的无针孔薄膜来解决添加剂制造中的关键问题。该技术支持各个领域的广泛商业应用，包括半导体制造，生物医学和医疗保健。尽管已经做出了多项努力来推动当前的添加剂制造技术的限制，但主要挑战之一是如何在柔性和多孔底物上打印和控制沉积材料的表面特性。该技术通过在不同类型的底物（例如纸，纱布甚至人类皮肤）上选择性烧结纳米材料来解决这个问题，从而使其在灵活的电子，医疗设备和个性化的医疗保健中实现商业应用。该技术可用于打印纱布或人皮肤上的射频天线，以监视个体的重要参数。该技术还可以用来将复杂的电子电路沉积在柔性聚合物膜上，该膜可以安装在无人机上以降低负载重量并达到能源效率。该I-Corps项目基于开发低温，大气的血浆烧结方法，以使纳米材料沉积在柔性表面上。在这种方法中，纳米颗粒的烧结是通过在大气等离子体射流的活性等离子体区域中注入金属和氧化金属纳米颗粒在原位进行的。大气血浆提供的活化能以及下游等离子体将纳米颗粒退火导致形成均匀的薄膜。该技术已经测试了在硅，玻璃和聚酰亚胺上的金，银和氧化石墨烯薄膜的沉积，以及用于改善生物传感器响应的丝网印刷纸电极。该技术的显着特征是该过程是在环境压力和室温下进行的，这使得解决方案有利于在纸张，纱布和复杂的三维对象等各种表面上存放材料的有利解决方案。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得的支持。