Automated method points way for making complex chemicals

For the first time, researchers at Cambridge University applied the concept of flow chemistry to complex molecules by using an automated feedback system.

‘We don’t physically need to be on site anymore to run these reactions. We can use very simple devices such as webcams to keep track of what’s going on in the lab and remote desktop access for the hardware,’ said Dr Ian Baxendale, who heads the Innovative Technology Centre at Cambridge along with Prof Steven Ley.

Many of the consumer chemicals used in modern society are made using a protracted, multi-step batch process — for example, pharmaceuticals often require at least 10 distinct processes.

Batch production is frequently an inefficient process that demands excess chemicals and solvents, generating large quantities of waste materials. 

’As chemists, we are a very conservative industry, we don’t tend to like technology, we’ve had our batch reactor for 250 years and we tend to stick with what we know,’ Baxendale said.