Molecular Manufacturing of Macroscopic Objects

This interdisciplinary proposal proposes a molecular basis for Manufacturing for the Future,[a1] to grow many types of particles in a nature-inspired way. It offers scalability, near-full utilization of the material, and the ability to carry out transformations at near ambient conditions. Manufacturing in nature spans the scales from intricate nano-scale up to macroscale features and occurs at near ambient temperatures, without the need for expensive materials and infrastructure. Lithography is the closest technique at our disposal to reproduce such precision in manufacturing, but it requires wasteful use of specialized materials, expensive infrastructure, and is inherently a 2D technique with significant processing limitations.

In the proposal we make use of our recent discoveries of artificial morphogenesis[52] to create manufacturing technologies with the ability to create particles of a variety of sizes (from nanoscale to macroscale) and regular geometric shapes. This adaptable molecular process which needs minimum infrastructure is especially suited for energy-and-material-efficient manufacturing in space. It will allow us to grow efficiently structures of a wide range of regular shapes with sizes from 50 nm to over 1 mm. We show successful attempts in synthesizing polymer particles by the self-shaping process and strategically outline ways to adapt it to the synthesis of shaped particles from various polymer and inorganic materials. Specific measurements of the thickness of the interfacial phase layer responsible for the transitions will expand the mechanistic understanding of the process. We will model the apparent influence of curvature for the observed 2D crystallization and melting and will use the insights to create a selection of new shapes by using mixtures of oils and surfactants. We will finally integrate the understanding of several dynamic phenomena to enable new modes of manufacturing with remote external control, such as light stimuli.

The current proposal, in the EPSRC's strategic priority area of 21st Century Products, aims to continue the stellar tradition which has kept the chemicals and chemical products manufacturing as the highest growth manufacturing industry over 3 decades. Our processes will be characterized by speed and agility, and would embody many desired properties for future manufacturing, e.g. local production closer to customers and modular production not requiring a factory. Instead of changing factories or factory tools, to change the output of particles, one only has to change the conditions for this molecular manufacturing to take place. Such a process will rely on highly skilled workers with knowledge of how process conditions affect the mechanism and production. Part of the proposal is specifically targeting the development of analytical techniques that will enable fast or even in situ characterization of the way molecular packings can change the shape transformations. Training will also make use of the inter-disciplinary network of partners created by the project.

Commercialization of the technology would expand the manufacturing base in the UK with the potential for significant job creation in related companies and "foundry labs" based on the versatility and manufacturing efficiency of this platform technology. Our existing[a2] and future IP from the research will be used to protect and capitalize on these developments. Based on industrial interest in energy-efficient emulsification, with a grant from the European Research Council, we are already developing a proof-of-concept process for continuous industrial self-emulsification, which grew out of the self-shaping phenomenon. Initial successes in inorganic particle templating and particle polymerization will result in an opportunity to commercialize a novel type of nano-manufacturing, which will extend from the molecular to the macroscopic scales.

The proposed manufacturing technology has the potential to change disruptively sectors of micro- and nanoparticle manufacturing. Moreover, it promises the creation of new classes of particles too expensive to produce by current technologies, and therefore it should open new markets and applications that did not exist before. In the shorter term we envision many research applications in collaborations with researchers in chemistry, materials science, biology, and engineering, who have expressed interest in it. The convenient platform offers easy, optical microscope observations which are macroscopic readouts of molecular packing events and phase transitions that are difficult to visualize and study otherwise. We have already shown the system working with over 70 different systems of different pure compounds and surfactants, and with the recent demonstration that it is applicable to mixtures where only one of the oil components has the property of self-shaping, the combinatorial space is immediately increased to thousands of systems. From presenting the research at international conferences, I have been approached by well-established researchers who are interested in collaborations. These include, among many others, polymerization for manufacturing, incorporation of our emulsions to create novel tunable stiffness materials, using the shape-changing droplets as actuators to interface with biological cells and study the effects of mechanostimulation, and industrial interest in our ability to break up emulsion droplets at low temperature. I am both seeking out and selecting the most promising directions for future development, and when sufficient progress is made, also pursuing scalability and reliability testing to move the technology from the lab-bench to the proof of concept and eventually pilot-plant stages. For example, for the self-emulsification discovery we have moved to the proof-of-concept goals, to be developed in the next year with a grant I won from the European Research Council.
Pathways to Impact in this proposal:
Scholarship and Establishing Academic Collaboration - three main approaches:
(i) Peer-reviewed publications are the time-tested way to summarize knowledge in a reliable and constructive way so others can build on it. We have published our research in high impact journals, 6 papers in less than 2 years. The work has been highlighted by eminent science writers conveying its significance to the wider public. We will continue to pursue these well-established avenues of rigorous dissemination to reach both academic and commercial researchers and potential beneficiaries. The current papers are not only attracting many citations, but we've had immediate requests for collaboration from people reading them. This is especially the case for the first paper published in Nature (Dec 2015), but also for the recent discovery of self-emulsification reported this year in Nature Communications (2017). We have been invited to review the revolution the self-shaping phenomenon has created in Accounts of Chemical Research.
(ii) Presentations at conferences are one of the best ways to popularize the work, since even people in the same field are often deluged by the number of publications. Conferences provide a good pre-selection filter, and invited and keynote talks are a further refinement that increases the reputation of the work. I have given invited and keynote presenations at important conferences, including e.g. the Colloid and Interface Symposium 2017 in Suwon, Korea, and the 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Complex Active & Adaptive Materials Systems in Ventura, CA. By continuing to give invited presentations I will reach the top thought leaders in the field.
(iii) Academic Exchanges are a great way to make use of complementary ideas as well as research facilities at different institutions. On other projects, with visits as short as 2-3 months, we have been able to publish joint papers in more than half the cases