View Electronic Brochure (PDF)

Overview

The 6th consecutive year of this internationally recognized gathering for experts in combinatorial and high throughput materials science, technology and informatics will address the latest developments in such major areas of this emerging field as:

• Combinatorial organic and inorganic materials development
• Combi methods and sensors, process control, materials evaluation
• Combi technologies for bio, pharma and nanomaterials
• Novel catalytic and functional materials combinatorial way
• Highthroughput informatics, experiment and library design

Get the latest Combi information from such leading organizations as:

Accelrys
AIST Japan
Avantium Chemicals
Avery Dennison
Cabot Superior Micropowders
CalTech
Eindhoven University of Technology
ETH Zürich
General Electric
Harvard University
Hysitron
Illinois Institute of Technology
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Starch and Chemical Company
NJ Center for Biomaterials
NuVant Systems
Rutgers University
Symyx Technologies
University of California Santa Barbara
University of Hull
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame

NEW THIS YEAR

This session will present a survey of the latest applications of high throughput and combinatorial (HT&C) methods to solving multi-dimensional problems challenging R&D efforts in complex fluids focusing on:

• Approaches to fluid processing including established combi methods such as multi-well arrays prepared using robotics and high levels of automation to microfluidic / lab-on-a-chip devices
• Cutting-edge scientific advances in these areas of materials science achieved using HT&C methods
• New directions in HT&C method development, including fundamental insights into complex fluid behavior as rational goals

FEATURING ALSO

RELATED LINKS:

Session Co-Organizer
NIST Combinatorial Methods Center

Endorsing Organization
GE Global Research Center

Endorsing Publishers
IoP Journals - Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
HighThroughputExperimentation.com
NanoTechWeb.com

Agenda

Monday, May 3, 2004

8:00 Registration, Coffee and Pastries, Exhibit/Poster Setup

8:50 Chairperson's Opening Remarks
Radislav A. Potyrailo, PhD, Biosciences, Combichemistry and Characterization Technologies, Global Research Center, General Electric Company

9:00 KEY NOTE ADDRESS
Exploiting the Innovator's Dilemma
Eric J. Amis, PhD, Chief, Polymers Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology
When new innovation emerges, it is reasonable that the current technical leaders would be in the best position to capitalize on it. These leaders typically have the most resources, the best ties to the community, and the expertise to know how to promote new breakthroughs. In his provocative book, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Harvard Business School Press, 1997), Clayton Christensen showed that precisely because of these supposed advantages, many successful and well-run companies fail miserably when faced with radical innovations. Among other things, they fail see how breakthroughs that initially yield worse performance can disrupt, and ultimately displace, conventional expertise. If "Combi" is a disruptive innovation, how can we succeed?

9:45 HTE in Polymer Research: Parallel Synthesis, Advanced Characterization and Thin Film Library Preparation
Ulrich S. Schubert, PhD, Professor, Dutch Polymer Institute and Laboratory or Macromolecular Chemistry and Nanoscience, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Automated synthesizers were successfully utilized for controlled and living polymerizations in solution, bulk and in emulsion (CROP, ATRP, RAFT, anionic, etc.). For this purpose, online and offline investigations utilizing GC, GPC, NMR and MALDI-TOF-MS were developed. In addition, combinatorial methods for defined spot and film preparation utilizing ink-jet printing as well as automated methods for the characterization of thin films, such as plate readers or AFM, were investigated. Finally, the data-handling, data-mining and modeling of the complete workflow will be presented together with selected applications for catalysts optimization and coating developments.

10:15 Refreshment Break, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

10:45 KEY NOTE ADDRESS
Connecting High-Throughput Experimentation and Predictive Models in Catalyst Screening
Peter Chen, PhD, Professor of Physical-Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
High-throughput experimentation and combinatorial methods produce large amounts of data. Data reduction usually means data mining, i.e. the search for "hits" that jump out from the baseline using some sort of search and visualization routine. Complicated physical or chemical phenomena, such as materials properties or catalyst activity or selectivity, however, typically depend on a many parameters which may mutually compensate or cancel. Accordingly, it is often the case that the correlations are not evident from the data themselves. Quantitative modeling of the data provides an efficient route to extraction of parameters in predictive models from the data produced by HTE.

11:30 Latest Progress in Oxidation and Polymerization High Throughput Screening
Gert-Jan Gruter, PhD, Professor, Vice President, Avantium Chemicals, The Netherlands
The real value of High Throughput Screening (HTS) for clients is in the increased rate of innovation and the reduced time-to-market for new products and processes. This will be illustrated via case studies around fixed bed and batch catalyst screening for selective alkane oxidation (propane to acrylic acid, cyclohexane to cyclohexanone/cyclohexanol) and examples generated with our new state-of-the art secondary screening polyolefins platform. Avantium offers contract research services whereby work is executed in close colaboration with the clients' scientific, engineering and business staff, to build a seamless project team acting as an extension of the client's R&D capabilities.

12:00 Luncheon Sponsored by The Knowledge Foundation

1:50 Chairperson's Remarks
Kathryn L. Beers, PhD, Polymers Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology

2:00 Microrheology as a Tool for High-Throughput Screening
David J. Pine, PhD, Professor & Chair of Chemical Engineering, Professor of Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara
Microrheology can be use as a tool to screen the rheological properties of libraries of gels and other complex fluids. Either multiple light scattering or video microscopy techniques can be used to probe sample volumes of 1 nl to 1 µl. The two methods complement each other and the choice of which to use depends on the properties of the samples. We illustrate the potential of this approach to high throughput screening with aqueous solutions of a block co-polypeptide library and the rheological phase diagram of a water/surfactant/salt.

2:30 Droplet Compartmentalization and Manipulation of Fluids in Microfluidic Devices
Darren R. Link, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Weitz Laboratory, Harvard University
Compartmentalization of fluid components in microreactors is accomplished by the controlled formation of droplets of precise composition in microfluidic devices. Two different types of droplets are generated independently and then brought together to initiate chemical reactions at a precise location. Control over the timing of droplet formation and the manipulation of the drops is accomplished through electrostatic charging of the drops and application of electric fields.

3:00 Formulations Informatics
Michael Doyle, PhD, Accelrys Materials Informatics Team, Accelrys
Formulation is critical to adding value in today’s detergents businesses. It is a key process by which these businesses create new and improved products using existing manufacturing methods and materials. Good formulation design matches customer needs with available technologies, controls costs, resolves manufacturing issues, and ensures compliance with regulations. These goals often conflict and must be balanced. Formulation is thus a complex and difficult process, heavily reliant on the expertise of individual formulators. The volumes of data in experimental programs of high throughput formulation is staggering. In fact they are so large that a software framework is required to manage and choose the optimum pathway to a solution. We have developed an approach to the management and analysis of this volume of data. The software comprises several individual, but integrated "Tools", and so is called FAST (the "Formulation-Assisting Software Toolkit". Using FAST, we have examined a set of designed experiments focused on exploring detergent lather by varying the surfactant sub-system. FAST supports knowledge management in that any of the knowledge generated in the above steps is shared through a database, and so is accessible to multiple users. However, in this talk we will focus on the details of the statistical and optimization methods used.

3:30 Refreshment Break, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

4:00 Combinatorial Methods for Pharmaceutical Development
Eric Carlson, PhD, Group Leader Discovery Tools Chemistry, Symyx Technologies, Inc.
We have developed several combinatorial workflows for pharmaceutical development that facilitate entire high throughput workflows from experimental design, to sample preparation, to screening, to data analysis and querying. The workflows described allow one to conduct parallel arrays of experiments using small quantities of material and are directed at the search for novel salt forms, novel polymorphic forms, and novel formulations, and at profiling the solubility and stability of drug compounds.

4:30 Automated Development of Complex Materials: Concept vs. Practice
Yadunandan L. Dar, Corporate Research, National Starch and Chemical Company
The vision for the automated formulation and testing of complex commercially viable materials to generate higher throughput and reliability is very powerful for most chemicals and materials industries. This talk will discuss thought provoking scenarios applicable to the translation of industrial testing methodolgy to combinatorial or high throughput approaches. It addresses technical and non-technical issues important for success.

5:00 High-Throughput Measurements of Immiscible Fluids
Steven D. Hudson, PhD, Physical Scientist, Polymers Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology
We describe a new microfluidic system to evaluate important properties of libraries of immiscible fluid mixtures, comprising oil, water, surfactants and other additives. Using techniques for fluid mixing and drop formation, together with online image and particle-tracking analysis that measures the deformation of drops, and their speed as they are convected through an extensional flow field, the composition-dependent interfacial tension can be measured rapidly.
In collaboration with: J. T. Cabral, K. L. Beers, T. Wu, A. Karim, E. J. Amis, NIST

5:30 Discussion
Creating Value with the Integrated Combi Factory

Facilitators - Eric J. Amis and Kathryn L. Beers

6:00 End of Day One

Tuesday, May 4, 2004

8:00 Coffee and Pastries, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

8:55 Chairperson's Remarks
Ulrich S. Schubert, PhD, Professor, Dutch Polymer Institute and Laboratory or Macromolecular Chemistry and Nanoscience, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

9:00 KEY NOTE ADDRESS
Application of High-Throughput Methodologies to Material Discovery
W. Henry Weinberg, PhD, Senior Vice President and CTO, Symyx Technologies, Inc.

Abstract not available at time of printing.

9:45 Role of Sensors in Combinatorial Materials Research
Radislav A. Potyrailo, PhD, Biosciences, Combichemistry and Characterization Technologies, Global Research Center, General Electric Company
In the area of sensors, advances in component microfabrication, electronics, and data analysis stimulate the development of new concepts in combinatorial materials screening. These advances are already impacting several phases in a typical combinatorial discovery cycle that include parallel materials synthesis, their performance testing, evaluation of properties, and processing of collected data. Several examples from our work will demonstrate that sensors provide an attractive addition to the infrastructure of analytical instruments for materials screening. Our other examples will further highlight the applicability of sensors beyond combinatorial screening to take advantage of their capabilities on more traditional, i.e., laboratory and manufacturing, scales.

10:15 Gas Sensor System for Rapid Screening of Catalysts Oxidation
Yusuke Yamada, PhD, Research Scientist, Special Division for Green Life Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
We will discuss the use of the gas sensor system for evaluation of the catalysts oxidation processes. The advantages of our gas sensors related with their small-size, rapid response, easy parallelization will be reviewed in comparison with other screening methods. The catalysts for CO combustion or selective oxidation of lower alkanes screened by suitable gas sensor system will be presented. The sensor system consisting of CO, CO₂, and odor sensors which are for the quantification of CO, CO₂, and aldehyde and ketone will be reviewed.

10:45 Refreshment Break, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

11:15 Miniaturization and Small Scale Properties Sensors in the High Throughput Materials Discovery
Oleg Kolosov, PhD, Director, Innovation and Outreach, Symyx Technologies, Inc.
A portfolio of sensing platforms in the field of catalysts, process liquids and polymers developed at Symyx Technologies is presented. Such real-time, in-situ sensors can function under broad temperature, high pressure and in chemically hostile environments. They allow to accurately measure the properties of materials and monitor miniaturized parallel reaction processes including density and viscosity of liquids and multiphase systems, thermal transitions as well as rheology, bulk compressibility and polymer density to mention a few.

11:45 Combinatorial Screening of Polymeric Coating Formulations
Ali R. Mehrabi, PhD, Senior Research Engineer, Avery Research Center, Avery Dennison
A combinatorial factory for preparation and screening of polymeric coating materials is developed. The coating formulations are prepared and coated using a novel combinatorial coating technique in order to obtain combinatorial libraries having various compositions and thickness. These combinatorial libraries are tested and screened using different high throughput methods. Examples of combinatorial screening of oxygen and moisture barrier coatings as well as pressure-sensitive adhesives are presented and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.
In collaboration with: J.Grunlan, D.L.Holguin, J.Akhave, Avery Dennison

12:15 Nanomechanical Properties Screening of Combinatorial Thin-Film Libraries by Nanoindentation
Oden L. Warren, PhD, Director of R&D, Hysitron, Inc.
The combinatorial methodology is efficient for creating thin-film libraries with controlled variations in film composition and/or film thickness. Because of the thin-film format, the corresponding variations in elastic modulus and hardness are best determined by the nanoindentation technique. This presentation focuses on using nanoindentation to differentiate shape-memory, superelastic, and austenitic compositions of compositional spreads of ternary alloys deposited onto silicon. The requirements for ensuring compatibility between thin-film libraries and the nanoindentation technique also will be addressed.

12:45 Lunch on Your Own

2:10 Chairperson's Remarks
Yadunandan L. Dar, Corporate Research, National Starch and Chemical Company

2:15 Integration of Combinatorial Synthesis, Rapid Screening, and Computational Modeling in Biomaterials Design
Joachim Kohn, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, Rutgers University and NJ Center for Biomaterials
We describe (i) the use of parallel synthesis techniques to generate large libraries of polymers, (ii) rapid screening assays for the characterization of bio-relevant material properties, and (iii) predictive computational models of the biological response of cells in contact with biomaterials. The successful integration of these 3 methodologies provides the necessary framework for the acceleration of the development of new degradable polymers for medical applications.

2:45 New Crystalline Forms of Small Molecule Compositions

Speaker to be confirmed

3:15 Rational Design in the Screening of Asymmetric Homogeneous Catalysis
Alan A. Smith, PhD, Vice President Business Development, Avantium Chemicals
With the ever increasing "time to market" pressure, the provision of rapid answers is an important need for pharmaceutical companies is a key need, today and tomorrow. The presentation will highlight some of the platforms developed by Avantium to address these issues, ranging from isomer separation by crystallization, polymorph screening, catalyst screening and process optimization. Specific emphasis will be given to Avantium Technologies Rational Screening techniques which allow for rapid identification of optimum conditions, avoiding time-consuming, trial and error experiments. This iterative cycle of descriptor calculation testing and empirical model building will be discussed and Avantium will share some developments in the field applied to asymmetric homogeneous catalysis.

3:45 Refreshment Break, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

4:15 Miniaturization of Chemical Synthesis to Enhance the Drug Discovery Process
Paul Watts, PhD, Senior Scientist, Department of Chemistry, University of Hull, United Kingdom
In this presentation a number of chemical reactions of pharmaceutical interest will be used to illustrate the advantages that micro reactors offer for the rapid optimisation of reactions, in which the product is typically produced in both higher yield and purity. It will be illustrated that compounds may be prepared and purified within an integrated system, in sufficient quantities for biological evaluation to be performed. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that it is possible to generate intermediates in situ within the reactor, which may then be subsequently reacted to produce more complex products. It will also be shown that integration of the micro reactor to a highly sensitive microchannel-based biological assay system would enable rapid screening to be performed.

4:45 Novel Approach in Identification of Polymeric Vehicles for Enhanced Bioactive Delivery
Miroslav Petro, PhD, Group Leader, Symyx Technologies, Inc.
Polymers offer a great opportunity to precisely dial-in a desired set of performance features via a combination of its building blocks, i.e. monomers. We report on development of a generic workflow based on monitoring interactions of diverse polymers with a bioactive as well as with a biological substrate and aimed at discovery of molecular vehicles for targeted delivery of bioactives to human tissues.

5:15 Combinatorial Gradient Reference Specimens for Advanced Scanning Probe Nanometrology
Michael J. Fasolka, PhD, NIST Combinatorial Methods Center
A host of new scanning probe microscopy techniques promise the nanoscale mapping of chemical, physical, biological and electro-optical properties; however, these new methods generally provide untested and/or qualitative data. We will describe a new research effort at NIST aimed at producing combi-inspired reference specimens useful to the development, and eventual quantification, of these emerging imaging technologies. These specimens will help calibrate SPM image contrast, and help evaluate probe quality, thus advancing our abilities to characterize nano-materials, NEMS, nano-photonics and biomaterials.

5:45 Concluding Remarks. End of Conference

Wednesday, May 5, 2004

8:15 Registration, Coffee and Pastries, Exhibit/Poster Setup

8:55 Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
Eduardo E. Wolf, PhD, Professor, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Notre Dame

9:00 KEY NOTE ADDRESS
Combinatorial Discovery of Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts
Eugene S. Smotkin, PhD, CEO, NuVant Systems
The application of combinatorial methods to fuel cell electrocatalysis was inspired by the pharmaceutical industry, where very large libraries of discreet molecules were prepared, for example, by split and pool methods with tagging to enable post screen identification of positive hits. The differences between discreet molecule libraries and mixed metal multiphase materials for fuel cells, diminishes the analogies between applications of combinatorial discovery to drug development versus fuel cell electrocatalysis. In-situ fuel cell spectroscopic studies, discovery level library preparation and screening, and array fuel cell systems capable of high throughput fundamental studies will be discussed.

9:50 Sputter-Deposited Anode Catalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
Jay F. Whitacre, PhD, Member Technical Staff, and
S.R. Narayanan, PhD, Group Supervisor, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Novel anode catalyst materials for direct methanol fuel cells were examined using a combinatorial technique. Binary, ternary, and quaternary alloys were sputter-deposited onto graphitic carbon substrates. The chamber geometry used allowed for a systematic compositional variation to be created across the substrate surface. Combinatorial electrochemical screening was carried out with a multi-channel pseudo-potentiostat. Fuel cells were tested with the most promising materials. The discussion will cover novel alloys containing greatly diminished noble metal loading capable of matching the performance of traditional Pt-Ru, as well as a new class of corrosion-resistant protective films.

10:30 Refreshment Break, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

10:50 Combinatorial and High Throughput Electrocatalysis - Mapping Activity, Stability and Structure For New DMFC Anode Fuel Cell Catalysts
Peter Strasser, PhD, Senior Staff Scientist, and
Alexander Gorer, PhD, Senior Staff Scientist, Symyx Technologies, Inc.
An integrated combinatorial and high throughput electrochemical workflow has been developed and applied to the discovery and optimizations of low-Pt DMFC anode catalysts. At the primary screening level, new active ternary catalyst compositions for the electrooxidation of methanol were discovered and optimized, and their stability in acidic solutions was characterized using automated XRD and EDX. At the secondary screening level, carbon supported high-surface-area ternary catalysts were prepared and evaluated using combinatorial powder synthesis and rotating disk electrode screening techniques. The Symyx workflow provides rapid mapping of activity-stability-structure-composition relationships.

11:30 Spray Pyrolysis-Based High Throughput Synthesis Platform for Discovery of Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts
Paolina Atanassova, PhD, Manager of R&D, Energy Materials, Cabot Superior MicroPowders
The discovery of low-cost high-performance oxygen reduction (ORR) electrocatalysts is one vital area in the development of PEMFC, that is of great importance for future mass production of fuel cells. Cabot Superior MicroPowders (CSMP) has developed a high throughput spray-based synthesis tool, which allows for fast screening of various electrocatalyst compositions (binary and ternary alloys) along with optimization of the microstructure and the morphology of the active phase. In addition, the electrocatalyst synthesis in a combinatorial mode is being done at conditions compatible with CSMP's spray-based manufacturing platform that has already being scaled to commercial volumes for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing of high-performance, highly reproducible electrocatalyst powders for PEMFC applications. This presentation will address the choice of components, workflow, data processing and test results on the performance of various compositions as oxygen reduction (ORR) electrocatalysts.
In collaboration with: M.Hampden-Smith, B.Gurau, P.Napolitano, Cabot Superior Micropowders

12:10 Lunch on Your Own

1:40 Chairperson’s Remarks
Eugene S. Smotkin, PhD, CEO, NuVant Systems

1:45 Discovery of Carbide - and Nitride-Based Catalysts Using Combinatorial Synthesis/High Throughput Methods
Levi T. Thompson, PhD, Associate Dean and Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan
Since Boudart’s discovery, in the 1980’s, of methods to synthesize early transition metal carbides and nitrides with high surface areas (>100 m²/g), there has been considerable interest in their use as catalysts and electrocatalysts. These materials have been demonstrated to be highly active for reactions ranging from amination to electrocatalytic hydrogen oxidation to water gas shift. This diversity of function, as well as their performance for selected hydrocarbon conversion reactions has led to suggestions that these materials are “platinum-like”. High surface area carbides and nitrides can be formed from most of the early transition metals, and several bimetallic phases combining early and late transition metals are known. Given the number of potential constituents, the identification of promising carbide and nitride compositions and microstructures is a daunting task from a statistical point of view. To accelerate the process, we are using combinatorial methods to synthesize multimetallic carbides and nitrides. This talk will describe a new, low-cost combinatorial synthesis/high though-put screening system, and its use in the discovery of new carbide- and nitride-based catalytic materials. We have identified new materials for the production of hydrogen-rich gas for fuel cells, and use as support materials for CO-tolerant electrocatalysts.

2:25 Selective Combinatorial Catalysis for Hydrogen Purification and Generation
Eduardo E. Wolf, PhD, Professor, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Notre Dame
In this work we describe a strategy for selective combinatorial catalysis for the preferential oxidation of CO (PROX) in the presence of hydrogen, which is relevant to the purification of hydrogen for fuel cells applications and for methanol decomposition for hydrogen generation. The experimental methodology consists of developing a model of the ideal catalysts for the reaction to be studied based on which materials are selected to be studied by infrared thermography and then in high throughput parallel reactor and finally in a single recycle reactor. This knowledge based selective combinatorial strategy leads to quick and useful results for catalysts development.

3:05 Refreshment Break, Exhibit/Poster Viewing

3:25 Rapid-Throughput Approaches to Electrocatalyst Development

Speaker to be confirmed

4:05 Laser Activated Membrane Introduction Mass Spectroscopy: A Discovery and Focus Level Screening System
Amit Nayar, PhD, Research Associate, Chemical Engineering Dept, Illinois Institute of Technology
Laser activated membrane introduction mass spectrometry, a high throughput screening method, evaluates heterogeneous catalysts under realistic reactor conditions. It is versatile system requiring no moving parts. The catalyst array is supported on carbon paper overlaid upon a silicone rubber membrane configured in a variation of membrane introduction mass spectrometry. The carbon paper serves as a heat dissipating gas diffusion layer that permits laser heating of catalyst samples far above the decomposition temperature of the polymer membrane that separates the array from the mass spectrometer vacuum chamber. A computer-controlled CO₂ bar-code writing laser is used for fine tune heating of the catalyst spots above the base temperature of the LAMIMS reactor. Applications of LAMIMS to fuel processor catalyst discovery will be discussed.

4:45 Application of Combinatorial Electrochemistry Methods for Fuel Cell Materials Development

Speaker to be confirmed

5:25 Open Discussion

Facilitator - Eugene S. Smotkin

All seminar speakers available to take questions

5:40 Concluding Remarks and End of Seminar

Call for Posters