Jonathan Midgley, Development Editor – Page 2 – Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Blog

Author Archive

Kinetics of Nanocrystal Synthesis in a Microfluidic Reactor

19 May 2016

New insight into nanocrystal nucleation and growth has emerged from researchers in Switzerland, giving vital knowledge and tools for large-scale quantum dot production.

Andrew DeMello and his team at ETH Zurich used a two-stage microfluidic reactor to precisely control the nucleation and growth stages of nanocrystal synthesis by automated control of reagent amounts, residence times and temperatures. This tight control combined with measurement of online spectroscopic data gave the scientists the ability to validate kinetic models of the synthesis – essential tools for chemical engineers to design processes for high quality, high volume quantum dot production.

Read the full paper here.

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Chemistry Means Business

16 May 2016

Date: 15 – 16 June 2016

Venue: Intercontinental London – The O2

Chemistry Means Business is our annual two-day event for industry, uniting SMEs, multinational organisations, investors, academic entrepreneurs and decision makers from across the UK and Europe.

View more details and full programme

Over two days:

1 Discover the best ways to commercialise new technologies, build a sound financial strategy and develop your business skills through more than 20 talks, workshops and panel discussions.

2 Find out what GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, P&G, Unilever, Croda and Mondelēz are looking for from SME and academic partnerships when they share their technology and supply chain needs on day 2.

3 Hear innovative small companies and university entrepreneurs’ present new technologies in health & wellbeing, energy & environment, food & water and materials sectors to expert panels as part of our Emerging Technologies Competition final – find out who wins in the evening.

4 Use structured networking sessions and one-to-one meetings to form new partnerships, discuss potential relationships and make connections to strengthen your business.

5 Discover new services, specifically created to support scientific companies and early stage businesses. Save time, improve efficiency, and find out what others are doing in four key industry sectors.

Tickets are available until 30 May, so there’s still time to secure your place.

#ChemMeansBusiness

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IMRET14

12 May 2016

The next event of the IMRET “International Conferences on MicroREaction Technology” conference series will be held in the historic city of Beijing, China in September 12-14, 2016.

IMRET14 will be hosted by Tsinghua University, and co-hosted by Dailian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The IMRET is a scientific conference in the field of micro process engineering and the sciences of microreactors that started in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1997. Since then, thirteen IMRET conferences have been organized by various well recognized societies and institutes. By organizing IMRET14, the committee aims to strengthen the multidisciplinary communication in the field of micro-process technology, and to facilitate its integration into everyday practices throughout the world by delivering the latest knowledge and making it available for the entire community.

Find out more and register now.

Scientific committee

Darvas Ferenc, Flow Chemistry Society, SUI

Peter Seeberger, Max Planck Institute, GER

Aaron Beeler, Boston University, USA

Claude de Bellefon, CNRS Lyon, FRA

Shinji Hasebe, Kyoto University, JPN

Volker Hessel, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, NED

Klavs Jensen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

C. Oliver Kappe, University of Graz, AUT

Gunther Kolb, Fraunhofer ICT-IMM, TU/e, GER/NED

Kim Dong-Pyo, POSTECH, KOR

Holger Löwe, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, GER

Michael Ölgemöller, James Cook University, AUS

Jürgen Brandner, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, GER

Jun-ichi Yoshida, Kyoto University, JPN

Timothy F. Jamison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Steven Ley, University of Cambridge, GBR

Ian Baxendale, Durham University, GBR

Dominique Roberge, Lonza Group Ltd., SUI

Steven A Soper, The University of North Carolina, USA

Guangsheng Luo, Tsinghua University, CHN

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Poster prize winner at 4th Zing Continuous Flow Chemistry Conference

28 Apr 2016

The 4th Zing Continuous Flow Chemistry Conference was held in in Albufeira, Portugal between 25th – 28th April 2016.

The Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Best Poster Prize was awarded on the last night at the Farewell dinner. We are very pleased to announce that the winner is:

Frank Leibfarth (MIT) for his poster entitled

“Flow-IEG: Scalable Synthesis of Sequence and Architecturally Defined, Unimolecular Macromolecules”

Congratulations to Frank!

Best poster prize winner Frank Leibfarth with plenary speaker, poster judge and Reaction Chemistry and Engineering Editorial Board member Joel Hawkins (Pfizer)

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4th Zing Continuous Flow Chemistry Conference

30 Mar 2016

4th Zing Continuous Flow Chemistry Conference

25th – 28th April 2016, Albufeira, Portugal

Following on from 3 previously successful Microwave & Flow Chemistry Conferences, the 4th Zing Continuous Flow Chemistry Conference will take place between 25th – 28th April 2016 in Albufeira, Portugal.

Flow chemistry has transformed the way in which chemists think about reaction development, synthesis, and manufacturing. This conference will bring together scientists from academia and industry to discuss developments in all aspects of continuous flow chemistry. Topics will include new technologies and paradigms that are enabling flow chemistry along with new chemical methods and synthetic processes enabled by flow chemistry. The conference will be of interest to scientists in academia and any industry that implements chemical synthesis.

Speakers include Klavs Jensen, Peter Seeberger, Corey Stephenson, Jun-ichi Yoshida and Joel Hawkins.

Register now

Flow Chem (Custom)

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Carbon monoxide where you want it, when you want it

24 Mar 2016

Synthetic chemists have invented two new room temperature methods for generating carbon monoxide from cheap precursors and using it straight away, so that deadly amounts of the gas never build up.

Carbon monoxide is toxic, flammable and disperses fast in air. It also happens to be one of the most useful C₁ building blocks for organic synthesis. Important industrial processes use bulk quantities. But concerns over safety, especially in cylinder storage and transportation, are hampering research. Carbon monoxide surrogates do exist, but involve costly components, high temperatures or harsh conditions.

To generate carbon monoxide at the point of use, Wim De Borggraeve and coworkers at KU Leuven, Belgium, have devised a triple system of cheap and common mesyl chloride, triethylamine and formic acid. Alternatively, collaborative work between the groups of Steven Ley at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Trond Ulven at the University of Southern Denmark, brings together chemistry developed in Denmark with flow chemistry technology from Cambridge.

Read the full story in Chemistry World.

Both articles are free to access:

Low-cost instant CO generation at room temperature using formic acid, mesyl chloride and triethylamine, Cedrick Veryser, Seger Van Mileghem, Brecht Egle, Philippe Gilles and Wim M. De Borggraeve, React. Chem. Eng., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/c6re00006a

Controlled generation and use of CO in flow, Steffen V. F. Hansen, Zoe E. Wilson, Trond Ulven and Steven V. Ley, React. Chem. Eng., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/c6re00020g

If you are unable to read Reaction Chemistry & Engineering content through automatic free institutional access, you can fill in this form to gain free individual access to the first two volumes.

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Issue 1 of Reaction Chemistry & Engineering

05 Feb 2016

Issue 1 of Reaction Chemistry & Engineering is now published online, read it here.

The front covers feature work by Hartman et al. and Noel et al. Take a look inside for articles on polymer reaction engineering, new flow reactor technology, biocatalysis and more!

All articles published in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering in 2016 and 2017 are free-to-access for all. Access is automatic through registered institutions, or individuals can fill in this simple online form to create a free publishing personal account and obtain access to Reaction Chemistry & Engineering and a host of other free content from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

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SCI/RSC Continuous Flow Technology III

14 Jan 2016

SCI/RSC Continuous Flow Technology III

14th – 16th March 2016, Cambridge, UK

This three day conference on Continuous Flow Technology is organised by both SCI and the Royal Society of Chemistry, combining previously successful 1 and 2 day symposia. This reflects the advances made with continuous flow technology over recent years and the impact it is making right across the chemicals industry spanning discovery applications, process development advances and value for commercial manufacture of fine and speciality chemicals.

The meeting is directed at individuals with a curiosity into what Flow is and how it may benefit them or their organisations (covering aspects from microfluidics to production scale manufacture) and those people already involved in the area (by highlighting the latest developments and cutting edge research to further stimulate appetites).

Confirmed speakers include Klavs Jensen (MIT, USA) and Ian Baxendale (Durham University, UK). Further details are available here.

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Breaking news… first Advance Articles published

06 Nov 2015

The first Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Advance Articles are now published!

A big thank you to all our board members, authors, referees and others that have worked hard to make this possible.

Read on for a taster of what’s available, and take some time to explore our content. Articles will now be published online as soon as they are ready – the best way to keep up to date with the latest work is to subscribe to our RSS feed or sign-up to email alerts. Don’t forget, the first two volumes of Reaction Chemistry & Engineering are free-to-access for everyone.

A selection of our very first articles:

“Influence of water on the deprotonation and the ionic mechanisms of a Heck alkynylation and its resultant E-factors” by Chuntian Hu, Kevin H. Shaughnessy and Ryan L. Hartman

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation into the influence of water on the cationic and anionic derivatives of the deprotonation mechanism of a Heck alkynylation, including evaluation of kinetic parameters, DFT free energy calculations and E-factor analysis in batch and continuous flow. The study increases understanding of how chemical waste generated during Heck alkynylations can be minimised.

“A convenient numbering-up strategy for the scale-up of gas–liquid photoredox catalysis in flow” by Yuanhai Su, Koen Kuijpers, Volker Hessel and Timothy Noël

This paper presents a modular photocatalytic flow reactor system and its application to the scale-up of the aerobic oxidation of thiols to disulfides, showing a good flow distribution and a yield comparable to a single device. The assembly is made up of only commercially available parts and can be quickly put together by anyone familiar with flow chemistry.

“Thermolysis of 1,3-dioxin-4-ones: fast generation of kinetic data using in-line analysis under flow” by Thomas Durand, Cyril Henry, David Bolien, David C. Harrowven, Sally Bloodworth, Xavier Franck and Richard J. Whitby

This paper uses a commercial flow reactor with stepped flow rate for rapid acquisition of kinetic data for the thermolysis of 1,3-dioxin-4-ones. UV and IR provide in-line reaction analysis and kinetic information is extracted from the resulting spectra. The methods developed are widely applicable for reaction study and process development.

We hope you find these articles of interest, don’t forget to check out all the latest content here.

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New Scientific Editor: Professor Ian Baxendale

14 Sep 2015

We are delighted to announce that Professor Ian Baxendale has joined the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board as a Scientific Editor, helping to ensure articles meet the stringent criteria required for publication in the journal.

Ian Baxendale is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Durham, UK. He works on the design and implementation of new technologies to enable complex chemical syntheses, including flow synthesis, automated methodologies, microwave reactors and immobilised reagents and scavengers. Take a look at his recent paper in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry:

Flow synthesis of ethyl isocyanoacetate enabling the telescoped synthesis of 1,2,4-triazoles and pyrrolo-[1,2-c]pyrimidines, Marcus Baumann, Antonio M. Rodriguez Garcia and Ian R. Baxendale, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 4231–4239.

Ian previously co-founded the Innovative Technology Centre, Cambridge and spin out company Reaxa Ltd with Prof. Steven Ley. He gives teaching lectures and runs lab training for industrial and academic researchers to learn more about his methods, as well as acting as a scientific consultant to a number of companies.

To keep up with the news from Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, including the latest Editorial Board appointments, be sure to sign up to our e-alerts and follow us on Twitter. Submit your work here.

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