Preliminary Results: The Development of a Continuous Flow Injection Microreactor For Organic Synthesis and Combinatorial Applications using Wittig Chemistry

This poster outlines the preliminary data obtained using microreactor technology, which has the potential to offer enhanced reaction optimisation and combinatorial based synthesis and screening. Initial developments have centred on the synthetic application of microreactors to Suzuki [1] and the well-established Wittig synthesis [2]. This particular poster focuses on the Wittig syntheses, Figure 1 in microreactors and will compare the performance characteristics to traditional batch methodology. The poster outlines the reaction yield data using a continuous flow injection microreactor prepared in borosilicate glass (channel geometries 300 microns wide and 100 microns deep) using photolithographic patterning and modified wet etch techniques [3]. The fabrication method, reaction optimisation and microreactor adaptation, including injection optimisation and reaction stoichiometry alteration (1:1 eq.) are described. The resulting optimised method was used with a variety of aldehydes to demonstrate its general applicability. The work extends into the development of a microreactor that will facilitate combinatorial synthesis and detection using the optimised reaction methodology described earlier, enabling the development of a semi automated combinatorial system with the potential for ultra high throughput operation.