Flow synthesis system

Flow chemistry offers several advantages: safe handling of reactive intermediates, high reaction reproducibility through accurate parameter control, easy boosting of reaction rates with superior high temperature heating and reagent mixing, fast reaction optimization, and straightforward upscaling of reactions. For polymers flow chemistry is an efficient means for a reproducible molecular weight distribution which is an influential parameter for most polymer systems in terms of delivering high efficiency PSC devices. As the degree of polymerization is controlled by mass - and heat transfer, it depends critically on the reaction conditions which are not easily controlled when the reaction volume is altered as is the case when scaling up a batch process. Scaling of flow processes, in contrast, can be done without altering the reaction volume and thereby it is possible to keep the reaction conditions constant. With flow synthesis you can furthermore easily boost the reaction rate as the reaction can take place at temperatures above the solvent boiling point due to the back pressure regulator (BPR) system.

The flow synthesis system from infinityPV is specially designed for the large-scale production of highly viscous polymers, which is not normally processable with a standard flow synthesis system, due to the small reactor size and low pump capacity.

The system comes with a coil tube reactor which has been developed for Stille cross coupling polymerization but can handle several different types of reactions as long as the reactants are in solution. The system tolerates a larger number of different solvents as it is built from acid resistant stainless steel and inert atmosphere is easily applied directly to the reaction feed. Several different reactor sizes are available and can easily be swapped, which gives the opportunity for small scale testing and large scale product on the same system.

Included equipment

• Flow synthesis station
• Compact HPLC pump with 10 ml/min pump head with pressure sensor (can be upgrade to larger pump head volume
• Reactor size of choice
• Heating cabinet
• Back pressure regulator (BPR)
• Fittings and connectors
• Reaction flask