Dr Mehr explains: "Whilst the overall goal of my group is to devise new paradigms for chemical synthesis and discovery, a central thread of that research is what’s known as 'green chemistry’. At King’s this means designing chemical products and processes more efficiently by generating less waste, using fewer harmful substances and reducing energy consumption. There are three particular facets to how we approach this.
"The first is miniaturisation. We examine reactions in micron-sized droplets - up to a trillion times smaller in volume than conventional glass containers used in chemistry – which significantly cuts down on the amount of waste generated per experiment. This means we are able to do many more experiments with a minuscule environmental impact compared to traditional methods.
"The second is data-rich experimentation. We strive to harvest as much information as possible from a single experiment. Our sensors are constantly collecting data as quickly as possible at a volume that would overwhelm a human experimenter. We pair this with data-driven computational models that benefit from large amounts of evidence. Because we are able to consider the implications of all of the collected data - not just the 'successful' or cherry-picked experiments - we are in a position to reduce the reliance on trial and error in science.
"The third is finding new ways of speeding up reactions. Traditionally, this has either required elevated temperatures or the use of precious metal catalysts with high toxicity potential. But putting molecules in tiny droplets has been proven to accelerate many reactions - up to a millionfold in some cases - without requiring the addition of any catalyst. By working at this length scale, we are positioned to benefit from this natural speedup.