Reactor for high-throughput screening in photocatalysis
Parallel photoreactors allowing screening up to 48 different conditions of reaction in the field of photocatalysis at the analytical to preparative scale. High degree of reproducibility thanks to accurate control of temperature and light intensity through a "6 channels smart power source".
Benefits
- More accurate than existing solutions in terms of temperature control
- More reproducibility
- Remotely controlled light intensity
- Individual control of light intensity
- Large number of positions
- Compatible with orbital shaker
Issue
Photocatalysis is an expanding and promising field in organic chemistry research, since artificial photosynthetic processes are gaining interest thanks to their sustainable character.
R&D chemists require reliable tools to screen among the conditions of photocatalysis experiments. Numerous parameters, such as temperature, intensity of irradiation light, photosensitizer, catalyst, etc. strongly impact on the outcome of a process. The optimization of one process requires intensive experimentation and a large number of experiments to be carried out.
Photocatalysis researchers therefore strongly need parallel photoreactors with good control on the conditions of the reactions to ensure reproducibility and fine-tuning of the optimal reaction conditions.
Current photoreactors only allow single experiments in a row, with high risk of fluctuating conditions.
Solution
The parallel photoreactors we have developed are made of two blocks: one block containing LEDs for light irradiation and one block containing the reaction vessels. Both blocks are surrounded with two different closed circuits in order to:
- avoid heating of the LEDs
- set the temperature of the reaction vessels.
Our photoreactors contain 25 or 48 positions (reaction vessel + LED). The size of the reaction vessel can be fixed to analytical (i.e. for screening experiments) or preparative size. The LED block is connected to a "smart power source" of 5-6 channels that can be remotely controlled via software or app and allows fixing light intensity for each position.
Our photoreactor provides accurate control of reaction conditions, thereby enabling the optimization of reaction conditions. The number of positions in the photoreactors can be easily adapted and customized through re-design of the device.