Chemputer

[ScienceRocks]

Chemputer

September 9, 2012 By Guest Contributor 1 Comment

by David Fuchs

Recently a 3D printer called a “chemputer” was announced. The headline read: “Researchers developing ‘chemputer’ that prints drugs.” This device, if modified, has very serious potential for disruptive change.



With one of these modified chemputers, you have the ability to create any chemical compound you wish in less than a day. With several hundred of them, you have the ability to order a custom chemical, queue it for manufacture and later use. This is where things get interesting and science advances very quickly.

Imagine a researcher working on polymer (plastic) solar cells and having access to this technology. Before he had access to this technology, he was testing several samples a week. Now, his lab is upgraded to include a rack mount with one thousand chemputers, and a reel-to-reel unit for printing and testing polymer solar cells, after which the number of samples he can test skyrockets.

In a day, he can test several thousand possible cell designs. In a month, tens of thousands. And in a year, several hundred thousand. With evolutionary software helping with the design process, it would not be long before solar cells became extremely cheap and extremely efficient. The current yearly increases in efficiency and reduction in cost would become something that could happen weekly.

Now, lets go to the lab next door where the researcher is designing new batteries for energy storage….

Clean Technica (Chemputer - CleanTechnica)

 

[flacaltenn]

The "chemputer" concept itself is very cool. The ability to replicate a number of common drugs from one machine would be very useful in remote locations (like an naval vessel or an Antarctic Research station). Prescriptions could be compounded remotely. A lot of interesting possibilities..

But the author takes some GIANT leaps into MATERIALS fabrication that are not in evidence. THere's a diff between replicating a chemical molecule and making a material. In the case of polymer Solar Cells for example, it's not the CHEMICAL nature of the compound but the way the molecules are arranged that make the differences. And that is something NOT required for most pharma apps I'm aware of. That molecular alignment and in some cases SELF-ASSEMBLING characteristics gets more into nanotech than mere chemical construction. And to boot -- polymer Solar has yet to prove its own viability in the competition with OTHER film Solar products and mainstream semiconductor Solar.

Same comment on battery development. Most of the huge advances are in the nanofab and molecular alignment of the electrode structures -- not the basic chem formulations..