Digitizing protocols into single reactors for the one-pot synthesis of nanomaterials

Nanomaterials exhibit unique properties that are tunable depending on their morphology and composition. However, widely used methods can fail due to incomplete or assumed knowledge of the synthesis protocol. A digital synthesis method could unambiguously capture the synthesis process, including required hardware, reagent inputs, and process description, thereby increasing accessibility and improving reproducibility. Our method encodes synthetic procedures into single reactors by imprinting synthetic parameters to the reactor's morphology, which are described using a chemical description language, cDL. This approach is consolidated into three single reactors that automate complex processes such as one-time, drop wise, and sequential addition for the synthesis of eight time resolved CdSe quantum dots, CdSe@ZnSe core-shell nanoparticles, and Pt-Fe3O4 Janus nanoparticles, respectively. This method of translating synthetic parameters into physical instances of a reactor enables the automation of nanomaterial synthesis in a simple, reliable, and reproducible manner, making nanomaterials accessible to researchers from various fields on demand.

Automated summary

Nanomaterials exhibit unique properties that can be tailored based on their morphology and composition. To overcome the limitations of existing synthesis methods, a digital synthesis method is developed to capture and document the entire synthesis process, making it more accessible and reproducible. This method utilizes chemical description language and three single reactors to automate the synthesis of various nanomaterials, enabling researchers from different fields to easily access and reproduce these materials.