A bottle neck that hinders valorisation studies of nanoparticles in functional materials is very often the limited capacity of research groups to synthesize sufficient amounts of nanoparticles that allow preliminary formulation or coating tests. Typical lab scale synthesis yields milligrams to grams of nanoparticle product. However, for first ‘tests’ in coating formulations, usually up to 10 to 100 g of material is required.

Additionally, material industries are struggling with a continuous need to reduce the time to market for new or improved products. High-throughput technologies can be applied for the accelerated discovery of new compounds, the optimization of synthesis conditions up to the extraction of synthesis knowhow.

Flamac has responded to these needs with the development of a unique automated parallel batch mode synthesis platform for nanocrystals. Additionally, automated purification of the nanocrystals, integrated into the platform, is readily developed. Batch synthesis with a capacity up to 10 g/day can be reached. The advantage of using a parallel reactor over simply increasing the reaction volume is that drastic changes of intrinsic synthesis parameters (such as heating up speed, stirring...) which are crucial for the final product, can be avoided. Furthermore, this strategy does not require significant changes of the available synthesis protocols. This is a significant advantage compared to continuous flow synthesis procedures.

Via this setup it is now possible to synthesize ‘tailor made’ nanoparticles at a reasonable scale to allow a first set of experiments to assess the potential of the nanoparticles in functional coatings.

The unique feature of the setup is that it both allows to focus on both high-throughput screening and volume synthesis objectives with the same equipment. It also generates information on reproducibility and repeatability. The variability analysis, together with the knowledge base on reaction chemistry-property relations, and the use and analysis of scalable reactor designs concepts assists in creating materials, data and information relevant for a subsequent upscaling process to industrial pilot scale levels.

This presentation will highlight the successful development and use of this unique platform in areas such as nanocrystals for printed photovoltaic applications. Additionally, the platform acts as an enabler for industrial research in various areas of nanomaterial synthesis and applications beyond photovoltaics.