Abstract 

The screening of large and diverse chemical or material libraries promises the discovery of new biomedical compounds or catalysts. However, the lack of flexible and cost-effective synthesis technologies for complex compound libraries hinders many research applications. By using solid polymers instead of liquid solvents as a medium for the delivery of chemicals and reaction control, we can rapidly synthesize large libraries of diverse biomolecules and nanomaterials.

Unlike liquid solvents, many polymers are solid and stable at room temperature and they can be triggered by heating above their glass transition temperature. This initiates diffusion within the polymer while maintaining its pattern and shape, allowing well-controlled parallel reactions in polymer reactors.

With our laser-based polymer patterning technologies, we can synthesize biomolecules in parallel, such as peptides for vaccine development. In combination with our novel vapor-based synthesis approach, other reactions, such as chemical glycosylation, can be explored in parallel. Recently, we have developed a high-speed approach for printing and driving chemical reactions simultaneously with the laser. This allows us to synthesize libraries of defined nanoparticles and other materials in milliseconds for high-throughput materials identification. In addition, we are currently working to revolutionize the axial resolution of nano 3d printing for device and sensor fabrication.