Optimization of carbon dioxide-assisted nanoparticle deposition process with uncertain design space

Abstract

A sequential design of experiments methodology with adaptive design space has been applied to optimize a nanoparticle deposition process using elevated pressure, elevated temperature carbon dioxide. This methodology is termed Layers of Experiments (LoE) with Adaptive Combined Design (ACD). Optimizing the CO2-assisted nanoparticle deposition system presents significant challenges: uncertainty in the design region, uncertainty in model structure, a lack of information regarding the process from mechanistic considerations and/or empirical studies, significant costs related to materials processing and characterization, and an engineering tolerance requirement on the characteristics of the products. The contribution of the LoE/ACD methodology presented here is that it systematically finds the optimum of a process while robustly managing the aforementioned challenges.