Crystalgrower - A new approach to understanding and predicting crystal growth

Crystals are of crucial importance to may industries from silicon chips that control computers to catalysts used in the chemical industry to drugs supplied by the pharmaceutical industry. Controlling how the crystals grow is crucial to their function and performance. In Manchester we are developing an understanding of the molecular processes that control this crystal growth. To do this we use modern microscopy tools such as atomic force microscopy to watch the crystals grow at the molecular scale. Then by simulating the micrographs we are able to learn about the details of the crystal-growth mechanism. Last year we published in Nature, 2017, 544, 456 a new methodology, encompassed in the new software CrystalGrower, to understand and predict the course of crystal growth. The CrystalGrower strategy provides arguably the first completely general method for simulating the growth of three-dimensional crystallites based on a small number of parameters and the specification of the saturation state of the solution. The program of study for this AstraZeneca funded CASE studentship would involve applying the CrystalGrower methodology to problems of specific interest to the pharmaceuticals industry and AstraZeneca in particular. This will involve: i) experimental measurements of crystal surface topography using our Atomic Force Microscopy techniques which are specifically designed to observe micron-sized crystals under growth and dissolution conditions; ii) application of the CrystalGrower software to simulate crystal habit and surface topography to extract free energies crystallisation for fundamental growth processes iii) developments of the CrystalGrower computer software to address problems of specific interest. Part (iii) will include developments such as treating the nucleation of competing polymorphs. We currently work together with partners in Curtin University, Australia (Julian Gale) on molecular dynamics and ab initio routes to understand crystal growth mechanistic pathways; Samara University, Russia (Vladislav Blatov) to produce mathematical crystal networks for the CrystalGrower input; STFC, Daresbury (Chris Morris) on super-computing facilities and code optimisation. The student would have interactions with all these world-class groups that will give an excellent grounding in all aspects of crystal growth experiment and simulation.

Contact for further Information
Please contact Professor Michael Anderson, [Email Address Removed], for further details including a CV and names of two references.