2015 NSEF Plenary Session: Chemical Engineering Principles for Nanotechnology

The “NSEF Plenary Session: Chemical Engineering Principles for Nanotechnology” will be held on Monday, November 9, 2015, at 8:30AM (https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2015/webprogram/Session30105.html). 

8:30 AM - NSEF Young Investigator Award Presentation

Jordan Green - Nanostructured Materials and Bionanotechnology to Engineer Cells from the Inside Out and the Outside In

9:20 AM - NSEF Forum Award Presentation

Alan W. Weimer - Functionalization of Fine Particles by Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposition (ALD/MLD)

ABSTRACT

Jordan Green - Nanostructured Materials and Bionanotechnology to Engineer Cells from the Inside Out and the Outside In

-TBD

Alan W. Weimer - Functionalization of Fine Particles by Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposition (ALD/MLD)

The functionalization of fine primary particles, including nanoparticles, is easily carried out using sequential self-limiting surface reactions in a fluidized bed reactor.  The self-limiting reactions result in the deposition of atomic or molecular layers, i.e. ALD or MLD.  This functionalization process, referred to as Particle ALD/MLD, can be used to deposit conformal and pinhole-free films of refractory oxides, non-oxides, metals, and hybrid polymer-based materials, among others.  It is also possible to deposit conformal porous or semi-continuous films where partial coverage is preferred instead.  Fluidized bed reactors are well suited for large scale operations.  

In this process, the particles are normally fluidized under reduced pressure conditions using an inert gas, although atmospheric pressure operation can also be carried out.  Precursor doses can be delivered to the bed of particles sequentially and, in most cases, can be utilized at nearly 100% efficiency without precursor breakthrough and loss.   The progress of the coating process can be monitored continuously using an in-line downstream mass spectrometer.  The ability to use precursors with efficiencies approaching 100% opens the door for a unique opportunity to utilize precursors that previously might have been considered to be too expensive.  Fluidized beds containing particles comprising hundreds of thousands, even millions of m^2 of surface area can be coated efficiently.  The dose times depend on the amount of surface area required to be coated and the flow rate of the precursor into the fluidized bed.  Although dose times could potentially be very long for coating millions of m^2 of particles, i.e. minutes to hours, the efficient use of the precursor to place nearly perfect films on primary particles makes Particle ALD/MLD the low cost and potentially only process that can cost-effectively functionalize high surface area ultra-fine dry particles.

Particle ALD/MLD has been demonstrated to place nanofilms on primary nanoparticles as small as 10 nm as well as on nanotubes having surface areas approaching 1000 m2/g and within the porous structure of polymeric materials having porosity near 95%.  Physical, optical, electrical, and magnetic properties of the particles can be controlled in order to passivate, activate, or is some manner functionalize the particles.  Current applications of interest include passivation of phosphors and nanocrystals used in LEDs, improved cycling of Li-ion batteries, and high-activity sintering resistant catalysts among others.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Jordan J. Green is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Ophthalmology, Oncology, Neurosurgery, and Materials Science & Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is also an executive committee member of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology and a co-founder of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at JHU. Dr. Green received his B.S. in chemical engineering and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003 and completed his Ph.D. in biological engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007.  Subsequently, Dr. Green was a postdoctoral associate at MIT in chemical engineering from 2007-2008. Dr. Green serves as the Chair of the Drug Delivery Special Interest Group of the Society For Biomaterials. He is also the CEO and co-founder of the Baltimore biotech startup company, AsclepiX Therapeutics. His work has resulted in the publication of over 60 papers and he has received numerous awards including the Maryland Outstanding Young Engineer Award, the Carnegie Mellon University Recent Alumni Award, the Biomedical Engineering Society Rita Schaffer Award, and was named by Popular Science as one of the 2014 “Brilliant Ten.”  Dr. Green’s main research interests are applying chemical engineering principles to develop biomaterials and nanobiotechnology to meet challenges in human health.

Dr. Alan W. Weimer, H. T. Sears Memorial Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in 1996 after a 16-year career with the Dow Chemical Company.  He was named Dow Research Inventor of the Year in 1993, and received Dow’s “Excellence in Science Award” in 1995 for commercializing high-temperature “Rapid Carbothermal Reduction“ processing to produce fine non-oxide ceramic powders, a process believed to be widely practiced today for the manufacture of tungsten carbide powders.  He was named University of Colorado Inventor of the Year in 2004, received both the campus-wide and the College of Engineering and Applied Science Faculty Research Awards in 2005 and a 2004 R&D 100 Award for his inventions related to Particle ALD.   He co-founded ALD NanoSolutions, Inc. (www.ALDNanoSolutions.com) in 2001 to commercialize Particle ALD technologies and has helped to grow and navigate the company through major economic downturns since its inception.   He has directed the research of 29 Ph.D. students; and 27 of the almost 100 undergraduates that he has mentored have either received Ph.D.s, or, are currently enrolled in Ph.D. programs elsewhere in the United States.  He received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1976 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1980.

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This is a plenary session sponsored by the AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum (NSEF). The goal is to highlight chemical engineering contributions to nanotechnology. The speakers in this session will provide a broad perspective of chemical engineering principles and contributions to nanotechnology that would be of interest to industrial scientists entering nanotechnology or academic scientists wishing to learn about new research areas. Distinguished speakers will be invited to discuss a range of nanotechnology topics including nanofabrication, nanostructured materials, nanodevices, and bionanotechnology.