The Rapid Automated Materials Synthesis Instrument (RAMSI): A High Throughput Combinatorial Robot for Nanoceramics Discovery

A high throughput combinatorial robot RAMSI (Rapid Automated Materials Synthesis Instrument) has been developed for nanoceramics synthesis. It can rapidly produce nanoparticle libraries that can be used for new materials discovery. The RAMSI robot has 3 motor-driven axes moving in X-Y-Z space and linking the synthesis, cleanup and printing sections. A High Throughput Continuous Hydrothermal (HiTCH) flow synthesis reactor is contained within RAMSI, and reaches significant production capability of 48 tubes of 50mL samples in 8 hours. Supported by the high throughput hardware design, the control system adopts parallel operations and multi-task assignments. Key strategies include intelligent supernatant detection, dot printing protocols and robot arm route schedule etc. The commissioning of RAMSI showed its high efficiency by producing samples of yttrium hydroxide doped with europium. In a 6-hour experiment, 8 unique 100mL samples were synthesized then cleaned and printed into 96 dots (100 minutes only for synthesis time). The ceramic dots were heat-treated at different temperatures up to 1200°C and affixed into a well-plate library. The brightest phosphors could be readily identified by illumination under UV light.