Session: Rising Stars of Mechanical Engineering Celebration & Showcase

Paper Number: 147907

147907 - Atmospheric-Pressure Manufacturing of Nanocrystalline Diamonds by Plasma-Assisted Flat Flame Vapor Deposition 

This research will establish a new knowledge of atmospheric-pressure manufacturing process for nanocrystalline diamonds with well controlled thermal, electrical and optical functionalities. Nanocrystalline diamonds are a class of carbon nanomaterials possessing prominent properties for a wide range of energy, semiconductor, biomedical and quantum applications. However, the current state-of-the-art approaches to fabricating nanoscale diamonds rely on either high-pressure or low-pressure processes and lack scalability and controllability. These deficiencies stem from a lack of fundamental knowledge in atmospheric-pressure process that is more desired for scaling up. The award will support fundamental research to fill in the knowledge gap. The new approach will provide an economically viable platform for continuous, large-scale manufacturing of high-quality nanocrystalline diamonds at atmospheric pressure. The success of this research project can advance a variety of technologies that have strategic importance to the U.S. national welfare and defense, including thermal management, energy conversion and storage, nanoscale sensing, biomedical imaging, quantum computing. The proposed education and outreach activities will contribute to broadening the participation in STEM education and strengthening the next-generation workforce for solving societal challenges, particularly in the field of advanced manufacturing.

The proposed flame vapor deposition methods have the capability to synthesize nanocrystalline diamonds at atmospheric pressure. In contrast to the low-pressure or high-pressure processes that are operated in a batch-by-batch manner with long downtime for loading and unloading samples, the atmospheric-pressure flame synthesis approach shows great promise for continuous production that is more efficient and cost-effective for up-scaling to large quantities and large areas. To advance the atmospheric-pressure manufacturing of nanocrystalline diamonds, the proposed research work will investigate the coupling of flame vapor deposition and plasma, with the hypothesis of two synergistic effects that can be made by flame-plasma coupling: 1) improving the growth rate, uniformity and stability for scaling up, and 2) increasing the in-situ doping efficiency for controlling the functionality of nanocrystalline diamond. The proposed project will take a combined experimental and modeling approach to advance the understanding of the controllability and scalability of plasma assisted flame vapor deposition process, study the in-situ doping capability, and develop a continuous, atmospheric prototype with in-line quality diagnosis for manufacturing functional nanocrystalline diamond materials and devices.

Presenting Author: Lili Cai University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Lili Cai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University with the Stanford Graduate Engineering Fellowship. Prior to joining University of Illinois in 2019, she conducted postdoctoral training in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Cai’s research is focused on bridging thermal science, nanotechnology and material manufacturing to advance energy and wearable applications. She has published ~ 38 peer-reviewed journal papers with more than 7700 citations and an H-index of 28. Her recent awards include MIT Technology Review’s 35 Under 35 list in 2020, the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF) Doctoral New Investigator Award in 2022, National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2022, 2023 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and 2024 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award.

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