Vietnamese scientists build automated lab for advanced material discovery

The project is led by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, head of the institute’s plasma technology department, together with researchers Nguyen Nhat Linh, Nguyen Hoang Tung and Nguyen Thi Mai.

Tung said the lab, set to begin trial operations this October, would have two robotic arms to handle chemical mixing, heating, and plasma excitation. The system featured in the lab can generate thousands of metallic nanomaterial samples each month, freeing scientists from tedious, repetitive labor.

Driven by integrated hardware and control software, the laboratory will automate the entire workflow, preparing chemical precursors, synthesizing materials, evaluating their properties, and storing data. The robotic arms will pump, drip, mix, and transfer samples between a cold plasma setup and a UV-Vis absorption spectrophotometer. The setup is expected to boost synthesis efficiency at least 10-fold to achieve 50-100 samples daily, up from just five to 10 in the case of manual operations.

Members of the research team during the early development phase of the automated laboratory. Photo by the team

According to the research team, the automated lab allows scientists to discover materials and proves that cutting-edge experimental models can be successfully adopted in Vietnam.

While Vietnamese researchers frequently rely on published studies and open global datasets, Tung emphasized the need for self-reliance. "We need proactive production capabilities to address material science problems unique to Vietnam." He added that the goal is to establish and master a domestic "material data factory."

He said synthesizing nanomaterials requires precise control over particle size, shape, and distribution by adjusting dozens of variables like precursors, mixing ratios, temperatures, catalysts, and processing times. Out of thousands of potential formulas, only a single combination might yield the desired properties for a specific application.

Traditional manual methods are akin to searching for a needle in a haystack, being slow, inconsistent, hard to replicate, and plagued by fragmented data. Discovering new materials and mapping correlations requires massive, standardized datasets. This need has pushed global scientific powers like the U.S., China, and Japan to deploy automated synthesis labs in the race to discover advanced industrial, medical, semiconductor, and aerospace materials.

A digital simulation of the automated nanomaterial synthesis laboratory. Photo by the research team

Developed in-house by Vietnamese scientists, the laboratory relies on cold plasma synthesis, a method that can rapidly generate diverse experimental conditions.

Plasma forms nanomaterials by breaking down precursor compounds into microscopic particles. Compared to traditional chemical synthesis, plasma offers superior control over the fabrication process. Adjusting variables such as temperature, pressure, gas composition, or power output directly alters the properties of the resulting nanoparticles.

Every test result is automatically logged alongside timestamps, environmental conditions, equipment models, experimental parameters, and material characteristics, creating large-scale datasets aligned with international standards. This rich data will serve as input for machine learning algorithms that predict novel materials and properties, drastically accelerating research and development cycles.

Metallic nanomaterials are structures measured on a nanometer scale. Because of their extremely high surface-area-to-volume ratio, their surface atoms interact heavily with the environment, giving them distinct optical, electrical, magnetic, and chemical behaviors compared to bulk metals. These characteristics make them invaluable across biomedicine, energy, electronics, and environmental monitoring.

For instance, gold and platinum nanoparticles, which will be synthesized at the new facility, exhibit plasmonic behavior, where surface electrons interact with light. This phenomenon enables ultra-sensitive biosensors and environmental detectors capable of spotting molecular-level substances, while also advancing research into optical transmission and light manipulation.