Project Overview
NIRT: NanoManufacturing and Analysis of Active Hierarchical Nanofilamentary Nanostructures
# 0709333
Yuris Dzenis (Principal Investigator)
Xiao Cheng Zeng (Co-Principal Investigator)
Joseph Turner (Co-Principal Investigator)
Qiming Zhang (Co-Principal Investigator)
The research objective of this Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) project is to develop and study novel hierarchical nanofilamentary materials and structures based on active continuous nanofibers. Ferro/piezoelectric materials represent a technologically important class of active materials and ferro/piezoelectric fibers and fiber-reinforced composites have distinct advantages for applications. However, current manufacturing techniques result in thick fibers with diameters in the tens to hundreds of microns leading to their poor processability and mechanical properties. In this project, hierarchical nanofilamentary materials and structures based on novel active continuous nanofibers will be nanomanufactured, studied, and developed. The project will build on the recent discovery of a nanomanufacturing technique capable of producing nearly perfectly aligned and dense bundles and yarns of continuous nanofilaments. Nanomanufacturing method will be further developed and optimized to produce hierarchical nanofilamentary structures from ferro/piezoelectric ceramic and polymer nanofibers. Mechanical and physical properties of these novel materials will be characterized and correlated to their multiscale architecture. Multiscale modeling and analyses will be performed and used to understand their behavior and to correlate it with their structure and processing parameters.
This research will have impact on nanomanufacturing, characterization, and modeling of active materials, nanofibers, and nanofiber assemblies and composites. This project will further advance our knowledge and understanding of nanofiber nanomanufacturing and behavior. Continuous nanofiber technology is attracting rapidly increasing interest in many fields and industries. The new materials and nanomanufacturing methods to be developed in this project will be used in a broad variety of applications. Educational component includes multidisciplinary research training of several PhD students and development of relevant new courses. Societal and ethical issues associated with nanomaterials research will be also explored in conjunction with the nanomanufacturing, characterization, and modeling research.
Source: NSF