INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP on MANUFACTURING RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT, Instrumentation, Metrology, and Standards for Nanomanufacturing, Report of Oct. 2006 Workshop
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a Priority Need in Nanomanufacturing
A key need identified by both the chemical and semiconductor industries is the capability for real-time characterization of nanoparticles smaller than 50 nanometers during synthesis processes (Chemical Vision2020 2003; 2006). According to the industry experts, the techniques currently used in commercial processes either lack the accuracy needed, or are not suitable for in-plant operation. Thus, there is often an inadequate ability to monitor and control production processes for nanoscale materials, resulting in variability in product quality.
The Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has recognized the emerging needs in nanomanufacturing and has initiated projects to address the need for real-time characterization.In a recent project, a multidisciplinary team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was assembled to work with industry to demonstrate a promising technique on systems characteristics of industrial processes.
The work was focused on validating the capability of a differential mobility analyzer (DMA) for real-time process characterization.This technique, which has been used broadly in aerosol science and in scientific research on the nanoparticles synthesis (Kim and Zachariah 2005; 2006), employs the deflection of charged particles in an electric field to segregate particles in a gas stream.A commercial DMA was used to sample and characterize the nanoparticles produced in two different types of gas-phase processes: a chemical vapor deposition process for production of metal-oxide particles, and a laser-ablation process for synthesis of carbon nanomaterials. The potential capability of the analyzer to provide real-time data on the variation of the particle size distribution was demonstrated. The results indicated promising opportunities for rapid detection of process transients and for the use of the instrument in process development (Cheng, Ford, et al. 2007; Cheng, Lee, et al. 2007). The success of this industry-national laboratory collaboration in translating advancements from scientific fields to industry to address an urgent, widespread need in nanomanufacturing indicates the value of such efforts.
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