Guest Seminar by Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering - Making Molecules and Materials in Intelligent Flowing Factories

The science of microfluidics has revolutionized the way we explore, discover and manufacture advanced structured materials. The ability of microfluidics to generate fluid-fluid interfaces and compartments with high precision, when coupled to intrinsically tunable molecular and thermal transport phenomena in such systems, allows us to go well beyond the paradigm of the synthetic flask or stirred-batch reactor in the laboratory and industry respectively. This seminar will showcase a decade of research encompassing the microfluidics-enabled manufacture of advanced materials at various length scales, for a broad spectrum of applications. The talk will begin at the smallest scale – that of nanoparticles, and showcase the controlled synthesis of plasmonic and catalytically active metal-based nanoparticles and composites, highlighting the clear, fundamental advantages of small-scale flow systems in achieving high precision synthesis. Next, the talk will briefly showcase the use of microfluidics in the creation of soft micro-scale materials, such as hydrogels, for a variety of applications (such as structured, edible food materials). Here, the talk will focus on the use of microfluidics-based processes that enable new routes for ‘designer’ pharmaceutical drug product manufacture, by enabling precise control over the solid state of the drug substance. We will discuss a recently developed technique which allows for crystallization and formulation of drug substances to be carried out in a single processing step, leading to monodisperse spherical granules with unprecedented control over crystal attributes such as shape, size and polymorphism. In the last segment of the seminar, we will also look at an exciting frontier – the use of automated microfluidic systems integrated with advanced imaging and machine learning for accelerated chemical/materials discovery and process development. Every part of the seminar will be accompanied by examples of industrial application, which we have actively been pursuing in collaboration with industry partners worldwide, including multinationals and start-up enterprises.