Most consumers want the real thing 鈥� the genuine Rolex watch or Louis Vuitton bag 鈥� and not a cheap knock-off. When it comes to chemistry, though, the original is not necessarily the best.
A growing number of chemists are improving on nature鈥檚 design to expand the properties of cheap materials and create all-new ones. Unlike dubiously sourced fashion accessories, the products are often cheaper and more effective than the real deal.
describes his work as 鈥渕odern alchemy鈥�. His team at Princeton University, New Jersey, is attempting to give cheap, abundant metals such as iron and cobalt the properties of more expensive and scarce metals, like platinum.
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Platinum鈥檚 properties make it an essential component of catalysts that speed up the reactions needed to make many everyday household items, such as gasoline and vegetable oils. It is also used in catalytic converters 鈥� devices that break down the toxic products produced by a car engine into less harmful substances.
Chirik鈥檚 team attempted to bestow the same ability on iron by attaching carbon-based molecules to it. These large molecules push around the electrons surrounding the iron, altering the metal鈥檚 properties. The resulting 鈥渕utant metal鈥� outperforms platinum as a catalyst, says Chirik. 鈥淚t鈥檚 faster, it鈥檚 clean and it doesn鈥檛 make by-products,鈥� he says.
Better than nature
Other chemists are more interested in reproducing natural materials. The field is very broad, says David Harwell, an assistant director of career management and development at the , simply because there are rich pickings of materials to mimic.
鈥淭ake mother of pearl, for example,鈥� says Harwell. Produced by mollusks, mother of pearl is not only beautiful, it is also incredibly strong. 鈥淚n nature, enzymes pull molecules together in an organized fashion and stitch them together to form structures. Theoretically, we should be able to do the same thing in a beaker.鈥�
That鈥檚 just what 鈥榮 team has been attempting. 鈥淲e look at natural materials like bone, elastin proteins in the skin, spider silk and cocoons,鈥� says Buehler, a computational chemist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. All of these materials have properties that could be useful in commercial products. Bone鈥檚 strength, for example, could make it a handy construction material. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to go back to the drawing board and say, 鈥榟ow can we replicate those properties?'鈥�
To get a better idea of the properties of naturally occurring products, Buehler鈥檚 team analyzes the materials鈥� structures using a computer model. 鈥淲e simulate the chemistry and the motion of atoms and molecules, and use that to extract principles about how these materials derive their function,鈥� he says.
Just press 鈥榩rint鈥�
Buehler and his team have then attempted to build their own version of the materials using a 3D printer.
To recreate the properties of human bone, the group used a combination of stiff and soft polymers. These were printed in a pattern similar to that seen in our own bones. 鈥�3D printing allows us to control the structure on the scale of micrometers,鈥� says Buehler. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very different technique to that used in nature, but it essentially captures the features of bone.鈥�
The technology behind , is still very new, and hasn鈥檛 yet been applied commercially. 鈥淎 lot of this kind of research is being done within academia, because we鈥檙e not close enough to being able to produce a product,鈥� says Harwell.
Within industry, chemists can find opportunities at small startups, says Harwell. The new ideas coming out of academic research groups tend to be developed by small, private spin-off companies before they are bought up or licensed by larger companies. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing more jobs in those smaller companies than larger ones,鈥� says Harwell.
Before joining industry, it鈥檚 worth looking into further study, says Facundo Fern谩ndez, analytical chemist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. 鈥淚鈥檝e had many students that graduated with a bachelor鈥檚 come back to grad school because they realized they needed an advanced degree,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you really want to make progress in the ranks, and to be able to direct the course of investigations, you need a master鈥檚 or a PhD.鈥�
Once you鈥檝e achieved that, the opportunity for a rewarding career in biologically inspired replicas is very real.
Spot the fake
Chemical replicas don鈥檛 always offer an improvement on the original. Chemists play a vital role in detecting potentially dangerous counterfeit medicines.
Facundo Fern谩ndez鈥檚 team is routinely sent samples of drugs by investigative teams, international governments and non-governmental organizations. 鈥淭hey could be suspicious, or simply from a random collection to test the quality of medicines,鈥� says Fern谩ndez, who leads a group at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
The first thing the team does is look for the drug鈥檚 active ingredient. If the key component of the medicine is missing, it鈥檚 likely you鈥檝e got a fake drug on your hands.
The next step involves splitting the drug into its individual components to identify each of them. 鈥淪ome of these ingredients could be toxic, or could give you a hint as to where these falsified medicines are being produced,鈥� says Fern谩ndez.
One of the team鈥檚 most memorable cases involved a supposed antimalarial drug.
鈥淲hen we analyzed it, we didn鈥檛 find the active ingredient,鈥� says Fern谩ndez. 鈥淏ut there was some other compound that we hadn鈥檛 seen before.鈥�
Further investigation revealed that this extra ingredient was sildenafil 鈥� the active component of Viagra.
鈥淚 think the counterfeiters were making fake Viagra, and decided that they were going to repackage their product as an antimalarial using the same powder,鈥� says Fern谩ndez.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe it. The problem is that these cases are not only interesting, they鈥檙e also sad, because you know that people are taking these medicines.鈥�
Fern谩ndez trained as an analytical chemist. 鈥淭o do this kind of work, you need to be able to use the tools we use for analysis鈥�, such as mass spectrometers, he says.
Drug investigation isn鈥檛 limited to academia 鈥� analytical chemists are also in demand at pharmaceutical companies. Government organizations, such as the , also need analytical chemists to investigate the quality of drugs.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淔aking it鈥�