A team from the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech with strong ties to the School of Materials Science and Engineering won a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award ($519,700) from NSF. The team consists of Michael Filler, principle investigator (ChBE, courtesy appointment in MSE), Mark Losego (MSE), Aaron Stebner (MSE/ME), Kyriaki Kalaitzidou (ME, courtesy appointment in MSE) and Marta Hatzell (ME). 

The award supports the acquisition of a fluidized bed vapor deposition reactor capable of applying precise nanoscale coatings to a range of material form factors including powders and fibers. Such coatings can improve the processing and performance of materials in technology sectors as diverse as chemical processing, catalysis, structural composites, paper and board, textiles, renewable energy, batteries, additive manufacturing, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

While vapor deposition methods are ubiquitous in microelectronics, they are rarely used in other high-volume manufacturing situations. However, the development of fluidized bed vapor deposition reactor technology is changing the status quo, now making it technically feasible and economically viable to apply such nanomaterial coatings to previous off-limits materials (e.g., powders and fibers). The reactor will be installed within the shared-user facility at Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronic and Nanotechnology and be available for use by both internal and external users.