International. A team of interdisciplinary researchers from King's College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering has developed a program to advance the discovery of new polymers.
Software called PySoftK uses AI to identify new polymeric materials, which could be used in a wide range of applications including medical technology, pharmaceuticals, energy storage, and more.
Polymers are large molecules made up of smaller repetitive molecules called monomers, which are joined together in a chain to form a long polymer molecule. Polymers can be natural, such as proteins and DNA, or they can be synthetic, such as plastics and synthetic fibers.
This new software development could change the way we investigate the relationship between chemical structure and function of new polymeric materials, by providing a robust dataset for researchers to train artificial intelligence (AI) to identify desirable properties of polymers.
Professor Chris Lorenz from the Department of Physics and principal investigator of the technology said: "PySoftK will allow us to accelerate the development of novel polymers for a wide range of applications, from using polymers with embedded nanoparticles to bind human tissue, to improving energy storage methods."
"These materials will help form a building block to address the large-scale challenges we face in healthcare, in developing biodegradable products for the home and personal care, and in creating more environmentally friendly energy storage systems."
Synthetic polymers can be designed to interact with changes in their environment or make use of certain properties. For example, Gore-Tex, a polymer used in clothing, was developed as an enhancement to nylon, a traditional polymer.
While both materials are waterproof, Gore-Tex is also breathable, because it has been designed with a particular chemical property to perform a specific function. This is known as a designer polymer.
Other areas in which designer polymers are used include medical ointments, paints, coatings, food packaging, biomedical imaging, and energy storage.
Design polymers have the potential to have a wide range of different functions due to their underlying physical and chemical properties, which originate from the type and arrangement of the monomers that make up the polymer.
