News

Vapourtec have launched a second generation LED light source (Gen-2) which increases the range of applications for its innovative, continuous flow UV-150 photochemical reactor. Available at two important wavelengths at 365 and 385 nm.

Flow chemistry systems designed and manufactured by Suffolk (UK) based Vapourtec have recently reached the impressive milestone of having been cited in 150 peer review publications. By way of a comparison Vapourtec's two closest competitors in flow chemistry technology have been mentioned in 51 and 40 publications respectively.

Using the Vapourtec R-Series flow chemistry system researchers from the Max-Planck Institute of Chemistry and Biology have developed an approach to deliver a range of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s) in a continuous process. The concept uses a non-iterative chemical assembly system that uses a range of flow chemistry modules that can be linked and interchanged to gain access to an increased chemical space.

Using the Vapourtec E-Series flow chemistry system researchers from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen have shown a procedure for functionalizing a range of heterocycles and various sensitive acrylates using the strong, non-nucleotide Knochel-Hauser base TMPMgCl.LiCl and the subsequent quenching with various electrophiles. The ability of the advanced Vapourtec V-3 pump to continuously process reagents of this type allows for the multi-gram scale-up of these reactions previously limited to small scale.

This article will outline a few of the most common types of photochemical reaction and analyse the key features of a reactor, considering the light sources currently available. Finally, it will showcase just a few of the many real world applications for photochemistry.

Recently published research into the production of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) utilising Vapourtec flow chemistry technology has revealed the substantial benefits of adopting a continuous flow process over the traditional batch approach. MOFs exhibit similar structures to naturally occurring Zeolites however their properties can be synthetically tuned providing a multitude of potential industrial applications including the storage, separation and triggered release of gases, drug molecules or toxins due to the porous nature of MOF compounds.

Using the Vapourtec R-Series flow chemistry system researchers from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies at the University of Bath have shown the development, preparation and use of two novel polymer encapsulated silica supported palladium catalysts for cross coupling reactions which were shown to be highly reactive, robust of reusable.

Using the Vapourtec R-Series flow chemistry system researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces have shown a process were primary and secondary amines can be oxidised quantitatively using singlet oxygen to the corresponding imine. This chemistry developed by the group at Max-Planck again shows the innovative use of continuous photochemistry for efficient chemical transformations.

Using the Vapourtec R-Series flow chemistry system researchers from Janssen Research and Development (Spain), the University of Leuven and the Universidad de Castilla-La Macncha have shown a continuous flow process for carbonylation reactions without the need of toxic carbon monoxide gas and have shown new chemical reactivity under flow conditions that were not previously possible under batch conditions.