Application of Nanoparticles in Manufacturing

Abstract

With the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, manufacturing is undergoing revolutionary changes. Nanoparticles, due to their novel and often enhanced properties, are now more and more used in manufacturing. In this chapter, the state-of-the-art application of nanoparticles in manufacturing is reviewed. The contents include five parts: (a) role of nanoparticles in manufacturing, (b) manufacturing methods, (c) applications, (d) challenges, and (e) conclusions. The roles of nanoparticles are divided into three categories: (i) building blocks, being the major component of a manufactured product by solid-state or colloidal nanoparticle consolidation; (ii) functional filler, as an addition for functionality, such as property improver, catalyst, stimuli-responsive, sensing, imaging, and carrier; and (iii) nanocomposites for multifunctionality. Various manufacturing methods and novel trends are summarized in this chapter, including top-down and bottom-up, from 2D to 3D, from cleanroom to desktop, 3D printing, and bio-assisted methods, such as DNA origami. Direct applications in areas of flexible electronics, molecular electronics, solar cells, construction industry, water treatment, and biomedical devices are presented. The associated challenges including nanoparticle safety issue, sustainable manufacturing, economic issue, and scale-up are discussed. Role of Nanoparticles in ManufacturingWith the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, manufacturing is undergoing revolutionary changes. Nanoparticles, due to their novel and often enhanced properties, have more and more been used in various manufacturing applications. Their role can generally be divided into three categories: (a) building blocks, (b) functional filler, and (c) nanocomposites for multifunctionality, which is summarized in Table 1. Building BlockNanoparticles sometimes act like the bricks in a house-building process to be the main component of a manufactured product. They can be consolidated via solid-and liquid-based methods. Solid-State Nanoparticle ConsolidationSolid-state metallic, ceramic, amorphous, and compound particles can be thermomechanically processed to form bulk 2D/3D structures with desired strength and level of densification (even full densification is possible). Reported methods include powder compact forging/extrusion, equal channel angular extrusion/ pressing, and hot pressing/sinter forging combined with conventional heating, laser sintering, microwave sintering, electric discharge sintering, or spark plasma sintering [33,255,278,306,425,426,476,492]. Particles with a narrow size distribution and spherical shape are desired to achieve low pore-to-