Scientists in Belgium have designed a microfluidic setup that manufactures thiol and yne beads, which can then undergo several click-type reactions.
Filip Du Prez and his team at Ghent University demonstrated the yne beads reacting with an azide or two thiols, whereas the thiol beads were tested using nine different reaction conditions. The thiol–isocyanate reaction was seen to be the fastest, being closely followed by the thiol–norbornene reaction.
Light Microscopy image of monodisperse thiol beads (left image). Fluorescent yne beads after clicking with coumarin-derivative (right image).
Du Prez believes that this discovery may help to guide researchers, especially in the field of solid phase synthesis, to choose the most suitable ligation reaction according to their needs since many of the conjugations studied are part of the click family.
Published in ChemComm this communication will be freely available until the 13th May 2011. Why not download the communication today and find out more about the beads and their clicking abilities?
