Product design - Molecules, devices, functional products, and formulated products

Chemical product design is a multidisciplinary and diverse subject. This article provides an overview of product design while focusing on product conceptualization. Four product types are considered - molecular products, formulated products, devices and functional products. For molecular products, computer-aided design tools are used to predict the physicochemical properties of single molecules and blends. For formulated products, an integrated experiment-modeling approach is used to generate the formula with the specified product attributes. For devices and functional products, conceptual product design is carried out by modeling the product based on thermodynamics, kinetics and transport processes, by performing experiments, and by decision making based on rule-based methods The results are product specifications in terms of the type of ingredients, composition, and the structure, form, shape or configuration of the product.