(116b) Toward Roll-to-Roll Production of Nanocomposites By Microwave Approach

Nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNT), metal oxides, and polymers, possess superior mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, lead to broad applications in composite materials, smart structures, chemical sensors, energy storage and nano-electronic devices. However, the high cost and difficulty in getting large scale, high quality nanocomposites remain challenges. We demonstrate an affordable and scalable microwave approach for the direct growth of CNT, nanostructured metal chalcogenides on a wide range of substrates, including powders (graphite, graphene and silicon) and fibers (carbon, glass, Kevlar, and Basalt). This nanocomposite production will only take less than one minute under the microwave irradiation at room temperature in the air, no need of any inert gas protection, and additional feed stock gases, usually required in chemical vapor deposition approach.

The major hurdles towards high quality, high performance nanocomposites made by this microwave approach include: understanding the reaction mechanism; design substrate surfaces with well tuned/engineered properties, such as surface energy, functional groups and defects. Experimental and computational approaches will be able to offer insight to tackle the challenges mentioned above, and unveil the correlation between the nanocomposite morphologies (shape, size and interface) & properties with the properties of the substrates.