Accelerated Manufacturing Platform for Engineered Nanomaterials (AMPLE)

 

An accelerated, manufacturing platform for engineered nanomaterials (AMPLE)

supported by the National Research Foundation’s Central Gap Fund

 

[UPDATE: On 16 April 2025, Accelerated Materials successfully received inaugural investment from UntroD with co-investment from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and Singapore government-backed Deep Tech Investor, SGInnovate.]

The AMPLE project is a collaboration between CARES and NTUitive, the innovation and enterprise arm of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore). Celebrating a decade of excellence in 2023, Cambridge CARES and Accelerated Materials marked their 10th and 3rd anniversaries, respectively, as they embark on a new chapter of innovation.

Together, we are at the forefront of advancing nanomaterials with the support of a significant S$6.5 million grant from the National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF).

About AMPLE: Accelerating Nanomaterial Innovation

Embarking on a two-year journey, the Accelerated Manufacturing Platform for Engineered Nanomaterials (AMPLE) project aims to revolutionise the landscape of nanomaterial development. Funded through NRF’s Central Gap Fund, AMPLE is committed to bridging the divide between academia and industry, translating research into scalable solutions that contribute to economic and societal growth in Singapore.

Unveiling the Vision: From Laboratory to Market

Led by CARES Research Fellows Nicholas Jose and Mikhail Kovalev, alongside Professor Alexei Lapkin from the University of Cambridge, the AMPLE project addresses a critical challenge identified during earlier research. The absence of a seamless value chain often impedes the commercialisation of nanomaterials. AMPLE is poised to fill this void by creating a market-ready technology platform, leveraging Industry 4.0 practices for the efficient production of nanomaterials used in antimicrobial coatings, energy storage devices, and composite materials.

Bridging the Central Gap

The AMPLE approach is projected to be over 100 times more efficient than conventional methods, streamlining the development process and reducing the time and budget required for product innovation. By combining next-generation reactor technologies with machine learning, AMPLE ensures rapid scaling, enhanced process efficiency, and improved product quality.

Progress Report: The AMPLE Journey

As we move forward, we are excited to share some key updates on the progress of the AMPLE project:

Technical Milestones (Phase 1):

– Construction of a 100 kg/day facility
– Forging strategic agreements with distributors, manufacturers, equipment suppliers, and end-users for collaborative ventures
– Optimisation and launch of ZArmour products, including COAT and PURE

Upcoming Goals (Phase 2):

– Conducting industrial trials to validate AMPLE’s capabilities
– Securing major sales agreements
– Initiating fundraising for our seed round

Business Developments:

– Unveiling new and improved branding for Accelerated Materials and ZArmour
– Revamping the Accelerated Materials website to reflect our evolving vision
– Active participation in key industry events

Join Us on the Journey

As we progress, AMPLE remains open to collaborations with industry colleagues who share our passion for innovation. For an initial informational discussion, feel free to reach out to Project Lead Dr Nicholas Jose at nicholas.jose@cares.cam.ac.uk.

 

This project is supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, under its Central Gap Fund (Award NRF2020NRF-CG001-028).

 

About the Team Leads

Prof Alexei Lapkin is a Professor of Sustainable Reaction Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is also a PI on three projects within Cambridge CARES. He has 20 years of chemical engineering experience in research, lecturing, and leading a research group split between the University of Cambridge and Cambridge CARES. His work is mainly on methods of process intensification for chemical manufacturing, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, and methods of environmental assessment of new chemical processes, including life cycle assessment.

 

 

 

Dr Nicholas Jose is the Project Lead for AMPLE. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge in 2019. His work focuses on the development of scalable methods for synthesis of high performance nanomaterials. In 2020, he founded the spin-off company Accelerated Materials, which uses a novel R&D methodology, incorporating intensified microreactor technology and machine learning, to accelerate scale-up of high-quality functional nanomaterials. Accelerated Materials won first prize in the 2021 Chris Abell Postdoc Business Plan Competition run by Cambridge Enterprise. He is currently the Project Lead for AMPLE.

 

 

 

Dr Mikhail Kovalev is the Technical Development Manager for AMPLE. He received his doctoral degree in 2009 from the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Russia with the specialty Physical Chemistry. After receiving his PhD he worked in Samsung Electronics, South Korea from 2010 to 2017. He then came to Singapore and worked in A*STAR before joining CARES in April 2020 on the now-complete eCO2EP project.