DURIP Automated and Parallelized Gas Permeation Testing Apparatus for Rapid Membrane Screening
Abstract
The Smith lab is funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on two separate projects. These projects focus primarily on the fundamental science of gas transport through polymers and inorganic materials with an overarching goal of developing next-generation membranes that could be used to enable transformative air revitalization units in submarines and air rebreathers, among other applications. Experimental characterization of these membrane materials is time-consuming and labor-intensive, often precluding sufficient data collection to reach statistically robust conclusions and to leverage computational techniques from ONR project collaborators. The most important experiments we conduct are pure-gas permeation experiments. To expedite the discovery process and enhance research quality, the Smith lab in collaboration with Maxwell Robotics has designed a multi-cell permeation apparatus capable of running up to six permeation experiments in parallel. We currently operate 4-single cell units, so this innovative apparatus will significantly improve research throughput by ~150% by allowing simultaneous testing of multiple samples, reducing experimental variability, and increasing reproducibility. This proposal requests funding for the purchase of this carefully designed apparatus, which has the potential to significantly advance membrane technology for Naval applications currently of interest to funded projects, but can enable a variety of new Department of Defense (DoD) projects and studies to more broadly support research related to defense.Program Officer - Chapman, Sandra Dr. Publicly Releasable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 15, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412249
Entities
People
- Zachary P Smith
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy