Multi-material nano3D printer to do extremely miniaturized chemical synthesis in the array format

Our novel multi-material nano3D printer [8] can be used to synthesize very-high-density peptide arrays, (more) but recently we realized that it can also be used to combinatorial stack nanolayers with embedded educts, e.g. for the synthesis of fluorescent molecules. [9] Currently, we explore together with our cooperation partners Prof. Stefan Bräse, Dr. Dario Mager, Prof. Jan Korvink, and Prof. Carsten Hopf the extremely miniaturized combinatorial synthesis of many different “light-harvesting-molecules”. One future application might then be the screening for catalysts that use the energy of the Sahara sun to reduce carbon dioxide (Fig. 6). Applications of this type might pave the way for a future green chemistry.

Fig. 6; Screening for catalysts that fix carbon dioxide. Different luminescent molecules are incubated in array format with CO₂ and illuminated with light. Those that couple to CO₂ in a light-driven reaction are detected with a scanner.

[8] Loeffler FF, Foertsch TC, Popov R, Mattes DS, Schlageter M, Sedlmayr M, Ridder B, Dang FX, von Bojničić-Kninski C, Weber LK, Fischer A, Greifenstein J, Bykovskaya V, Buliev I, Bischoff FR, Hahn L, Meier MAR, Bräse S, Powell AK, BalabanTS, Breitling F, Nesterov-Mueller A. High-flexibility combinatorial peptide synthesis with laser-based transfer of monomers in matrix material. Nature Communications, 2016, DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS11844

[9] Mattes DS, Jung N, Weber L, Bräse S, Breitling F. (2019) Miniaturized and automated synthesis of biomolecules – Overview and perspectives. Advanced Materials, first online published 29 April 2019; 31: 1806656; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201806656