Smart Design of New Composite Materials with Chemical Simulation

复合材料工业是英国制造业最好的例子之一。该行业代表着英国40亿英镑的经济，将是为未来的绿色航空旅行和氢储存制造碳纤维部件的关键。为了支持这些发展，需要研究新的塑料（也称为聚合物）材料，并更快地推向市场。许多领先的英国研究机构已经确定，通过化学模拟的智能设计将推动下一代材料的发现。材料行业采用模拟工具的最大障碍是劳动力中缺乏熟练的计算化学家。Molydyn开发了Atlas，这是一个可访问的化学建模平台，可以将模拟工具交到所有材料科学家手中。化学模拟可以在材料发现项目中节省10万英镑，因为它可以在将最好的聚合物带入实验室之前对新聚合物进行筛选。这些工具可以在几个小时内预测材料的性能，而不是几个星期的实验室实验。它们的资源效率也要高得多：不需要一次性手套、一次性塑料或溶剂来虚拟测试材料。该项目将扩展Atlas的功能，使其可以用于模拟新聚合物配方的粘度。当向碳纤维中注入聚合物时，粘度是很重要的，这可能是令人难以置信的资源密集型。模拟聚合物的粘度将有助于发现优化的聚合物，从而减少制造复合材料的时间和成本。这笔拨款还将资助商用聚合物系统的实验室测试，可用于验证模拟工具，并将成为未来工业客户的重要案例研究。这笔赠款的产出将推动Molydyn未来的发展。扩展Atlas将使该平台对工业界和学术界更具吸引力。加上引人注目的案例研究，该项目将支持Molydyn的销售，并成为Atlas未来的核心部分。这对Molydyn来说是一个重要的时刻，他将在2023年底进行一轮种子期前投资。

The composite materials industry is one of the UKs best examples of manufacturing. Representing £4.0 billion of the UK economy, the industry will be key to creating carbon fibre parts for the future of green air travel and hydrogen storage. In order to support these developments, new plastic (otherwise known as polymer) materials need to be researched and brought to market faster. Many leading UK research institutions have identified that smart design through chemical simulation will drive discovery of the next generation of materials. The greatest barrier to this adoption of simulation tools in the materials industry is a lack of skilled computational chemists in the workforce.Molydyn has developed Atlas, an accessible chemical modelling platform can put simulation tools into the hands of all materials scientists. Chemical simulation can save £100,000s in material discovery projects by screening new polymers virtually before taking the best ones into the laboratory. These tools can predict material properties in hours rather than weeks of lab experiments. They are also far more resource efficient: no disposable gloves, single use plastics, or solvents are needed to virtually test materials.This project will expand the capabilities of Atlas, so that it can be used to simulate the viscosity of new polymer formulations. Viscosity is important when infusing carbon fibres with polymer, which can be incredibly resource intensive. Simulating the viscosity of polymers will allow for the discovery of optimised polymers that reduce the time and cost of manufacturing composite materials. This grant will also fund lab testing of commercial polymer systems that can be used to validate the simulation tools, and will be an important case study for future industrial customers.The output of this grant will power Molydyn's growth for the future. Expanding Atlas will make the platform more appealing to industry and academia alike. Coupled with the compelling case study, this project will support Molydyn's sales and become a core part of the future of Atlas. This comes at an important time for Molydyn who will be raising a pre-seed investment round at the end of 2023\.