“By automating polymer synthesis and using a robotic platform, it is now possible to rapidly create a multitude of unique materials”Adam Gormley
Researchers at Rutgers University have developed an innovative automated approach to producing unique materials with polymers based on a combination of robotics and software. The new automated system, which uses custom software and liquid-handling robotics, helps make polymers, such as plastics and fibers, that have uses in chemical and biological applications from drugs and regenerative medicine to tissue engineering.
With a host of synthetic polymers finding uses in advanced materials with special properties, their development is seen as key to new technologies, which also includes diagnostics, medical devices, sensors and robots. As detailed in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems [Tamasi et al. Adv. Int. Sys. (2019) DOI: 10.1002/aisy.201900126], this new system can produce up to 384 different polymers at one time, a huge improvement on existing techniques.
Robotics has been used for a while to automate a range of methods for producing materials, and also to discover and develop drugs. However, synthesizing polymers is problematic as most chemical reactions are very sensitive to oxygen and are not achievable without removing it during production, but this approach allows for polymer synthesis reactions that tolerate oxygen. As senior author Adam Gormley said, “By automating polymer synthesis and using a robotic platform, it is now possible to rapidly create a multitude of unique materials”.
The team developed custom software involving a liquid handling robot that assesses polymer designs and carries out each stage of the chemical reaction. Previously, such polymer chemistry was completed in glove boxes or strictly inert conditions, but the potential of robotics helps complete the chemistry through a liquid-handling platform that was custom programmed for automated capability, driven by polymer design software, and which allows the non-expert to produce libraries of sophisticated polymers without much advanced training.
While the individual properties of polymers depending on their structure/function behavior, which can be problematic to tune, this combinatorial approach brings the synthesis of thousands of unique composition for structure/function testing with comparative ease. The technology is an effective early example of how integrated robotics has a role to play in this field.
Although the method may be small in terms of scale, being only a few milligrams of material for each batch, is very powerful for the initial screening of material properties. The team are now looking to program further features powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, computational tools that are central to the future of materials development, with smart integration of AI with polymer robotics being an obvious route to progress the technology.
“Robotics programmed for advanced polymer synthesis in well plates” (credit: Matthew Tamasi)