Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment, Electronics, Healthcare and Industry: Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment, Electronics, Healthcare and Industry - Session I
Sponsored by: ACerS Electronics Division, TMS Nanomechanical Materials Behavior Committee
Program Organizers: Gary Pickrell, Virginia Tech; Navin Manjooran, Solve

Wednesday 8:00 AM
November 4, 2020
Room: Virtual Meeting Room 26
Location: MS&T Virtual

Session Chair: Gurbinder Kaur, Simon Fraser University; Gunes Yakaboylu, West Virginia University; Gary Pickrell, Virginia Tech; Navin Manjooran, Solve Technology And Research, Inc.


8:00 AM  
Introductory Comments: Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment, Electronics, Healthcare and Industry: Gary Pickrell1; 1Virginia Tech
    Introductory Comments

8:05 AM  Invited
Rational Design of MOFs-based Nanocomposites for Environmental Applications: Weining Wang1; 1Virginia Commonwealth University
    Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted much attention in the past decades owing to their amazing properties, including rich surface chemistry, flexible structure, superior surface area, and tunable porosity. Endorsed by those features, MOFs find a variety of applications, such as gas capture and separation, catalysis, drug delivery, and sensing. MOFs are conventionally synthesized via wet-chemistry methods, which, however, suffer from long reaction durations, inhomogeneous mixing, and limited batch processes. To address the above issues, we have developed a microdroplet-based nanomanufacturing process to fabricate MOFs-based functional materials with controlled hierarchical nanostructures in the rapid, continuous, and scalable manner. The mechanisms of rapid formation of MOFs inside the microdroplets were investigated by both experimental and theoretical approaches. Further, we have also developed strategies to integrate MOFs with semiconductors to form hybrid photocatalysts for various environmental applications, such as gas adsorption, CO2 photoreduction, and pollutant degradation. The quantitative mechanisms of gas adsorption, activation, and charge transfer within the hybrid nanostructures were explored by various in-situ techniques, such as diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), coupled with density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

8:35 AM  
Additively Manufactured In-pile Strain Sensors: Timothy Phero1; Kaelee Novich1; Bette Gougar1; Samuel Cutler1; Kiyo Fujimoto1; Richard Skifton2; David Estrada1; Brian Jaques1; 1Boise State University; 2Idaho National Laboratory
    Accurate, real-time monitoring of mechanical strain in fuel, cladding, and structural components of nuclear reactors provides verification data to modeling and simulation efforts that aim to decrease nuclear innovation time in developmental materials. Current resistive-strain sensors have limited performance during in-pile experiments due to the harsh operating conditions and limited spacing between fuel and cladding components. In this work, aerosol jet printing (AJP) and nanoparticle inks are utilized to fabricate reliable, miniaturized capacitive-strain sensors (CSS) directly onto simulated fuel cladding made of aluminum or stainless-steel alloys. The high-temperature resiliency of our CSS was tested and compared to commercially available strain sensors with a mechanical test frame at elevated temperatures. The effects of AJP process parameters, ink composition, and heat-treatment on the reliability of our sensors was also characterized. The results demonstrate the potential of AJP to fabricate nuclear sensors with reduced invasiveness and stable performance for high-temperature applications.

8:55 AM  
Energy and Nanomaterials: Synergy at the Interface: Randy Vander Wal1; 1Penn State University
     Many forms of energy utilization, conversion and storage and generation are dominated by interfacial reactions. Therein nanomaterials as an interfacial modifier will play a critical role in these processes. This talk will provide an overview of their synthesis, integration and value in energy storage, conservation, transfer, efficiency, control and generation. Specific energy applications we have explored include the following: 1) Storage: Increased energy density in Li ion batteries and supercapacitors using carbon nanotubes 2) Efficiency: Reduced friction using nanolubricants between moving parts 3) Transfer: Improved thermal management using nanofluids in heat transfer applications 4) Conservation: Lightweight polymeric composites incorporating nanotubes, nanoclays and graphene oxide for vehicle composites 5) Control: Gas sensors based on nanoscale metal oxide semi-conductors for process control and monitoring 6) Generation: Catalysts and photocatalysts using nanostructured oxides for accelerated charge transfer and minimal recombination lossesHighlights in each application will be presented.

9:15 AM  
Pioneering Sensing Applications of Nanoporous Gold by Leveraging Unique Properties at the Nanoscale: Timothy Wong1; Roger Newman1; 1University of Toronto
    One of the barriers to the widespread application of nanomaterials is the challenges in fabrication. Nanoporous gold (NPG) is an exceptional material in this regard, with controllable, scalable, and simple fabrication being possible, utilizing electrochemical dealloying. A fixed electrochemical potential is applied to Au alloy, where the potential dissolves the less-noble component(s) of the alloy. As the Au rearranges on the surface, a nanoporous network is formed. In this work, we demonstrate a potential new application space for NPG, whereby environmental volatile compounds are monitored by changes in the complex electrical properties (resistance and capacitance) of NPG. This sensing is enabled by the high surface as well as electrochemical and nanoscale electron scattering phenomena. Recent advances in machine learning have also helped enable this sensing, due to the complex non-linearities observed in the sensing response.