Award Abstract #0217939
Pulsed Thermal Excitation of Self-Assembled Nanotemplates for Manufacturing Dimensionally Controlled Nanostructured Films

NSF Org:	CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
Initial Amendment Date:	September 5, 2002
Latest Amendment Date:	March 27, 2003
Award Number:	0217939
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Charalabos H. Doumanidis CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering
Start Date:	September 1, 2002
Expires:	August 31, 2006 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$378973
Investigator(s):	Pritish Mukherjee pritish@chuma1.cas.usf.edu (Principal Investigator) Sarath Witanachchi (Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	University of South Florida 3650 Spectrum Blvd Tampa, FL 33612 813/974-5465
NSF Program(s):	NANOMANUFACTURING, THERMAL TRANSPORT PROCESSES
Field Application(s):	0308000 Industrial Technology
Program Reference Code(s):	MANU, 9146
Program Element Code(s):	1788, 1406

ABSTRACT

The physical, chemical and biological properties of matter undergo transitions over critical length scales in the range of 1-50 nanometers, leading to a diversity of new functionality. The investigation of fundamentally new phenomena is coupled with commercial interest in the development of devices based on nanostructured materials. This research project will investigate a novel technique for the controlled synthesis of mono-disperse, nanograined materials. Chemical and physical processing of materials on the nanoscale will be combined for the growth of coatings with columnar nanocrystalline grains of uniform size and distribution, which will be tuned on the nanometer scale. The formation of ordered, mono-disperse, dimensionally-controlled nanotemplates by chemical self-assembly will be followed by selective pulsed laser heating of the nanotemplates in synchronization with a pulsed dual-laser ablation growth process. This technique will be extended to commercially viable large-area deposition by substituting a pulsed, hollow-cathode plasma deposition process in lieu of the dual-laser ablation process. Our prior discoveries in pulsed laser ablation and plasma deposition will provide the basis for the growth processes. Au and TiO2 nanoparticles will be used as the template material while the hard coatings will be made using TiN and SiC, as representative examples. Morphological, structural and mechanical properties of the nanostructured material will be investigated for varying nanograin size and separation. The mechanical functionality of the nanograined coatings will be assessed by studying film properties such as hardness, ductility and wear resistance, yielding fundamental insight into the correlation of elastic properties with the nanocrystalline grain dimensions. Such studies have not been possible in the past because of poly-dispersity in grain sizes.



The project will involve the hands-on training of graduate and undergraduate students in the exciting area of nanomanufacturing that is of national importance, and lead to curricular enhancements at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Pre-college outreach through annual summer workshops for high school teachers and research opportunities for high school students, particularly women and minorities, will permit the early introduction of suitable aspects of this emerging area to promote future careers in nanomanufacturing. If successful, the impact of the research project will be the development of a new hybrid manufacturing process combining chemical and physical processing on the nanoscale with nano-micro-meso scale integration. Potential applications include not only the investigation of new physical phenomena at the nanometer scale but also a manufacturing process with changes in functionality leading to improvements in mechanical properties of hard coatings.

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