RS Fellow - EPSRC grant (2016): Realising the Automated Materials Synthesiser

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High throughput screening (HTS) is an 'accelerated serendipity' approach to find breakthroughs in materials faster by carrying out large numbers of experiments in parallel batches. However, if new materials are to be useful, they must be scalable, cheap, and reproducible. This is a major stumbling block, as batch conditions can be hard to scale up at reasonable cost: it is often difficult to get from the 'hit' on the screening robot to a large scale product. Continuous flow chemistry holds untapped potential to solve these issues by reducing reaction times, increasing yield, and simplifying scale up with excellent reproducibility. The focus of this project is to merge the fields of flow chemistry and materials science to bring new high-performance materials to market. By focusing initially on supramolecular materials - that is, materials made of discrete molecules, not extended frameworks -self-assembly and crystallisation will be controlled in flow, tailoring the properties of the resultant materials. A strong theme of the project will be the integration of algorithms and analysis to automatically optimise flow synthesis, coupling synthesis, purification, analysis, and automation.