Cyber-Physical System Enabled Digital Manufacturing of Nanocrystals: A Crystputer

Digital manufacturing of materials in a rational and designable strategy and is gaining popularity on the macro-scale . However, it is challenging to control the nanocrystal morphologies on a nano-scale. Herein, we introduce Crystputer as a state-of-the-art cyber- physical system , which will enable digital manufacture of nanocrystals through convergence of cyber and physical systems.  In the cyber system, an all-programmable process with rational design including codes, working files, mathematic models, and databases is designed. In the physical system, controllable synthesis is achieved by synergistic coupling of robot-assisted synthesis and nanocrystal growth , which are benefited from the identified structure-directing agents on the macro-scale as triggers of the surface energy to control the morphology on the atomic-scale. Driven by the Crystputer efficiency, over 2,300 experiments are conducted autonomously together with in situ characterization to build up the Au nanocrystals genome. The genome architecture with logic gates is further designed for the Crystputer. It is demonstrated that the Crystputer can be trained as an experienced expert for retrosynthesis and scale-up synthesis of targeted Au nanorods by taking advantage of the machine learning prediction and logic computation. The sophisticated mechanism encompassing design-control-synthesis-characterization-computing-retrosynthesis enables this Crystputer to deliver unprecedented performance and efficiency for rational design, controllable synthesis, and retrosynthesis of target Au nanocrystals. The insights and new knowledge open an opportunity to enhance the feasibility of Crystputer for intelligent digital manufacturing of customized nanocrystals in order to facilitate the paradigm shift of data-driven materials innovation from ‘code’ to ‘nanocrystals’.