Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are essential for applications from agriculture and environmental protection through to healthcare. Today, most SAPs are derived from petroleum and can absorb more than 100× their mass in water. A&B Smart Materials’ mission is to develop a range of sustainable, biodegradable SAPs to compete with the polluting, fossil-fuel-based offerings currently on the market.
A&B Smart Materials, ReactWise, and the University of Warwick polymer group won a grant from the Henry Royce Institute - the UK’s National Institute for Advanced Materials Research. We supported the wet-lab experimentalists during execution using our Bayesian optimization platform to intelligently guide experimentation, identify molecular insights, and reduce iteration cycles.
Using our AI-powered optimization platform, A&B rapidly narrowed down viable bio-based formulation compositions, cutting weeks off their development timelines. Small changes in composition can significantly alter properties, so reducing unpredictability by gaining deeper insight into structure-property relationships with each iteration is crucial.
By rapidly narrowing down promising formulations and guiding our optimisation cycles, it has allowed us to cut weeks off our experimental timelines.
What would traditionally require multiple rounds of lab work is now accelerated by AI-driven insight, giving our team clearer direction and more confidence in each iteration.
This capability is helping A&B Smart Materials bring next-generation polymer systems to market faster, with enhanced performance, scalability, and sustainability built into the process from the start.''
