Overview
This project will develop a continuous-flow platform for discovering, producing, and optimising precision polymeric nanomaterials. The resulting autonomous ‘micelle machine’ will enable non-experts to produce valuable nanomaterials ‘on-demand’. This highly interdisciplinary project is a unique opportunity to gain valuable skills in digital and automated polymer nanoscience within a supportive, engaging setting that contains world-class facilities and expertise.
About this opportunity
Engineered polymer nanomaterials are a transformational technology due to their low cost, simplicity, versatility, and ease of functionality. If they are to realise their full potential, strategies to discover, optimize, and manufacture precision polymer nanomaterials with uniform size and shape are needed. Continuous-flow processes represent an elegant solution for conducting polymer synthesis and self-assembly as they are highly modular, can be scaled-out, offer real-time monitoring, and can be autonomously controlled. This project will develop a versatile platform for continuous-flow polymer synthesis and self-assembly. A variety of in-line and on-line analysis techniques will be explored including in-line SAXS/SANS, and the resulting data used to develop an AI-guided, autonomous system capable of producing non-spherical nanomaterials of precise size, shape and dispersity on demand. This ‘micelle machine’ will output target precision nanomaterials from monomer feedstocks by autonomous exploration, optimisation, and scale-up of both synthesis and self-assembly steps. This step-change in throughput will rapidly accelerate the discovery and development of precision polymer nanomaterials, overcoming current limitations for producing important yet difficult to access nanomaterials such as those used in nanomedicine and optoelectronics.
The supervisory team brings a unique combination of expertise to this project. Dr Street (Department of Chemistry), the primary supervisor of this project, brings a wealth of expertise in polymer synthesis and self-assembly, especially in the manufacture of precision polymer nanomaterials via crystallization-driven self-assembly (CDSA). Prof Slater (Department of Chemistry) is an expert in flow chemistry and has been exploring the continuous-flow synthesis and self-assembly of challenging species using a range of in-line analysis techniques. Dr Sharratt (Department of Materials, Design and Manufacturing Eng) is an expert in scattering techniques including small angle X-ray/neutron scattering (SAXS/SANS) and has experience with adapting this technology to high-throughput experimentation and continuous-flow. Prof Maskell (Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics) is an expert in data-guided decision making and has extensive expertise in AI and machine learning techniques with a track record of addressing real-world problems in diverse fields. Together, this combination of expertise is unique to Liverpool and ideally positions the proposed studentship for success.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project means the successful student can expect to learn a broad range of skills, from fundamental chemical and polymer synthesis, through self-assembly and nanoscience, to flow chemistry, reactor design, in-line/on-line analysis and scattering techniques, data science, coding, automation, AI, and high-throughput experimentation.
This project is expected to start in October 2026 and is offered under the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital and Automated Materials Chemistry based in the Materials Innovation Factory at the University of Liverpool, the largest industry-academia colocation in UK physical science. The successful candidate will benefit from training in robotic, digital, chemical and physical thinking, which they will apply in their domain-specific research in materials design, discovery and processing. PhD training has been developed with 35 industrial partners and is designed to generate flexible, employable, enterprising researchers who can communicate across domains.