title: Integrated 3D-printed reactionware for chemical synthesis and analysis.
abstract: Three-dimensional (3D) printing has the potential to transform science and technology by creating bespoke, low-cost appliances that previously required dedicated facilities to make. An attractive, but unexplored, application is to use a 3D printer to initiate chemical reactions by printing the reagents directly into a 3D reactionware matrix, and so put reactionware design, construction and operation under digital control. Here, using a low-cost 3D printer and open-source design software we produced reactionware for organic and inorganic synthesis, which included printed-in catalysts and other architectures with printed-in components for electrochemical and spectroscopic analysis. This enabled reactions to be monitored in situ so that different reactionware architectures could be screened for their efficacy for a given process, with a digital feedback mechanism for device optimization. Furthermore, solely by modifying reactionware architecture, reaction outcomes can be altered. Taken together, this approach constitutes a relatively cheap, automated and reconfigurable chemical discovery platform that makes techniques from chemical engineering accessible to typical synthetic laboratories.
authors.affiliation: WestCHEM, School of Chemistry, The University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Symes
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Kitson
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Craig J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Richmond
authors.forename: Geoffrey J T
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Bowman
authors.forename: Turlif
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vilbrandt
authors.forename: Leroy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cronin
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D060326:Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011327:Printing; D012984:Software