Learn the fundamentals of flow chemistry with a practical laboratory guide
Flow chemistry is rapidly becoming an essential technique for modern synthetic chemistry. To help students, researchers and practising chemists develop a solid understanding of continuous flow, Vapourtec has produced a comprehensive Flow Chemistry Teaching Guide, available to download free of charge.
Written by Professor Nicholas Leadbeater and the New Synthetic Methods Group at the University of Connecticut in collaboration with Vapourtec, An Introduction to Flow Chemistry – A Practical Laboratory Course provides a structured introduction to the principles of continuous flow chemistry before demonstrating their application through practical laboratory experiments.
Whether you are introducing flow chemistry into an undergraduate teaching laboratory or learning the technique for the first time, this guide provides a practical and accessible learning resource.
What You’ll learn
The guide introduces the key concepts that underpin successful flow chemistry, including:
- Batch versus continuous processing
- Reactor design and mixing
- Residence time and flow rate
- Heat transfer and reaction control
- Pressure management and back-pressure regulation
- Process optimization and scale-up
- Multistep synthesis
Clear explanations, diagrams and worked examples help readers understand why continuous flow has become an important tool for modern chemical synthesis.
From Principles to Practice
Unlike many introductory resources, the flow chemistry guide combines theory with nine fully developed laboratory experiments, each designed to fit within a typical three-hour undergraduate laboratory session.
Each experiment includes:
- Background theory and reaction mechanism
- Laboratory preparation notes
- Step-by-step equipment setup
- Operating instructions for the Vapourtec E-Series
- Experimental procedure
- Product work-up
- Discussion questions and learning outcomes
The experiments have been extensively evaluated in undergraduate teaching laboratories to ensure they can be completed reliably within the allocated practical session.
Laboratory Experiments
The flow chemistry guide contains practical exercises covering a broad range of important synthetic transformations, including:
- Diels-Alder cycloaddition
- Paal-Knorr pyrrole synthesis
- Electrophilic aromatic bromination
- Hoffmann rearrangement
- Aldehyde oxidation
- Knoevenagel condensation
- Ring-closing metathesis
- Esterification
- Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling
Together, these experiments demonstrate how continuous flow can improve reaction control, reproducibility, safety and efficiency while reinforcing core concepts in synthetic organic chemistry.
Designed for Teaching
The Vapourtec E-Series was developed with university teaching laboratories in mind. Its simple operation, robust design and affordable price make it well suited to undergraduate practical classes, allowing students to gain hands-on experience with modern continuous flow techniques.
The accompanying teaching guide enables educators to introduce flow chemistry into existing laboratory courses with minimal preparation.
Flow Chemistry Guide Licensing
The Flow Chemistry Guide is provided free of charge to all Vapourtec E-Series owners.
Educational institutions are granted permission to reproduce the guide in its original form for teaching within their organisation. The material may not be modified, redistributed outside the institution or sold commercially.