Precise Measurement and Analysis of Specific Surface Area and Pore Size Distribution of Micro and Nanoparticles

微纳米颗粒比表面积和孔径分布的精确测量与分析

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00500
• 负责人: Kholghy, MohammadReza
• 金额: $ 10.93万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=759518
• 关键词: Precise; Measurement; Analysis; Specific; Surface

Nanoparticles are revolutionizing many industries including medical diagnostics, environmental sensing, and greenhouse gas conversion. They are often made in laboratories via wet chemistry techniques which are complex, time consuming, and expensive. However, flame synthesis has proven to be one of the most scalable, and is typically used for the commercial production of nanoparticles: carbon black ($13B/year), fumed SiO2 ($3.5B/year), and pigmentary TiO2 ($21B/year). Carleton University is home to Ontario's only flame spray pyrolysis reactor, which is used to tailor-make nanoparticle systems that are of immediate industrial relevance. However, to find nanoparticle systems that have the desired properties, such as high surface area, one must also characterize many different systems, leading to a bottleneck. Further, Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design is in the process of establishing a chemical engineering department and a nanotechnology hub. The ability to design and synthesize new nanoparticles can only be taken advantage of if these materials can be characterized at the same pace at which they are synthesized. The requested instrument will analyze the size and surface area of nanoparticles and their pores. Such characterization is routinely done as the first step of any new nanoparticle system. Presently, there is a severe shortage of particle size and surface area characterization capacity. That shortage is leading to significant delays in data acquisition and quality. Further, such measurements are currently outsourced to different government laboratories, costing over $4,500 per month. Finally, all other similar instruments within Ottawa are operated by technicians for external requests rendering this characterization a virtual "black box" to students. The requested instrument will be used by the applicants primarily in two interlinked research themes: carbonaceous material and their impact on the climate crisis, and energy storage. It will also support four existing research programs as well as collaborations with industrial partners across the world: Monolith Materials (USA), Vale Inc, GH Power, Ekona Power, and ParteQ GmbH (Germany). All these partnerships are severely jeopardized by the extreme delays in the routine surface area characterization provided by the requested instrument. This, in turn, denies Canada from the economic opportunities made possible by successful collaboration with industrial partners. Further, the absence of an in-house analyzer denies HQP valuable training opportunities in conducting characterization techniques themselves, and, in-turn, compromises their prospects of gaining skills desirable by those industrial partners for future careers. The system will be maintained by dedicated personnel. The applicant team consists of early career and established researchers, and includes members of underrepresented and visible minority groups who currently lead more than 20 trainees from diverse backgrounds.

纳米粒子正在彻底改变许多行业，包括医疗诊断、环境传感和温室气体转化。它们通常是在实验室通过湿化学技术制造的，这种技术复杂、耗时且昂贵。然而，火焰合成已被证明是最具扩展性的方法之一，通常用于纳米粒子的商业生产：炭黑（$13B/年）、气相 SiO2（$3.5B/年）和颜料 TiO2（$21B/年）年）。卡尔顿大学是安大略省唯一的火焰喷射热解反应器的所在地，该反应器用于定制与工业直接相关的纳米颗粒系统。然而，为了找到具有所需特性（例如高表面积）的纳米粒子系统，还必须表征许多不同的系统，从而导致瓶颈。此外，卡尔顿工程与设计学院正在建立化学工程系和纳米技术中心。只有能够以与合成相同的速度表征这些材料，才能利用设计和合成新纳米颗粒的能力。 所需的仪器将分析纳米颗粒及其孔隙的尺寸和表面积。这种表征通常是任何新纳米粒子系统的第一步。目前，颗粒尺寸和表面积表征能力严重不足。这种短缺导致数据采集和质量的严重延迟。此外，此类测量目前外包给不同的政府实验室，每月费用超过 4,500 美元。最后，渥太华境内的所有其他类似仪器均由技术人员根据外部请求操作，使这种表征对学生来说成为虚拟“黑匣子”。申请人所请求的工具将主要用于两个相互关联的研究主题：碳质材料及其对气候危机的影响和能源储存。它还将支持四个现有的研究项目以及与世界各地工业合作伙伴的合作：Monolith Materials（美国）、Vale Inc、GH Power、Ekona Power 和 ParteQ GmbH（德国）。所有这些合作伙伴关系都因所需仪器提供的常规表面积表征的极端延迟而受到严重损害。这反过来又剥夺了加拿大通过与工业伙伴成功合作而获得的经济机会。此外，由于缺乏内部分析仪，HQP 无法获得进行表征技术本身的宝贵培训机会，进而损害了他们获得这些工业合作伙伴未来职业所需技能的前景。 该系统将由专人维护。申请团队由早期职业和成熟的研究人员组成，其中包括代表性不足和明显的少数群体的成员，他们目前领导着 20 多名来自不同背景的学员。