Copper Tube Reactors for Catalysed Click Chemistry
What is Click Chemistry ?
Click chemistry is a chemical philosophy introduced by K. Barry Sharpless in 2001 and describes chemistry tailored to generate substances quickly and reliably by joining small units together.
One of the most popular reactions within the click chemistry philosophy is the azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition using a Cu catalyst at room temperature discovered concurrently and independently by the groups of K. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal.

This was an improvement over the same reaction first popularized by Rolf Huisgen in the 1970s, albeit at elevated temperatures in the absence of water and without a Cu catalyst.
Click Chemistry in Flow
The recent publication outlined below shows what can be achieved using a continuous flow chemistry approach with a copper tube reactor.
Points of particular interest include
- Rapid reactions (residence times of typically 5 minutes )
- Completely safe handling of energetic organic azide intermediates.
- No loss of copper catalyst activity after hundreds of reactions
- The copper tube reactor effectively catalyzed other copper-mediated reactions such as the Sonogashira and Ullman couplings too !
The Use of Copper Flow Reactor Technology for the Continuous Synthesis of 1,4-Disubstituted 1,2,3-Triazoles
Andrew R. Bogdana and NealW. Sachb,*
a Cornell University, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
b Pfizer Inc., Global Research and Development, Medicinal Chemistry, 10777 Science Centre Drive, San Diego, CA 92121,
USA
Fax: (+1)-858-678-8244; phone: (+1)-858-622-7938; e-mail: neal.sach@pfizer.com
A library of 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles was synthesized using a copper flow reactor.
Organic azides, generated in situ from alkyl halides and sodium azide, were reacted with acetylenes using the copper-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. This process eliminates both the handling of organic azides and the need for additional copper catalyst and permits the facile preparation of numerous triazoles in a continuous flow process.
10.1002/adsc.200800758
Click here to see this paper online.
The Vapourtec Copper Reactor - Available Immediately !
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The authors of the paper above developed their own copper tube reactor. But you won't need to. Vapourtec now offer a copper tube reactor (right) that is immediately compatible with all existing Vapourtec flow chemistry systems. Vapourtec tube reactors are wound around an open mesh former and heated or cooled with moving air. within a glass manifold. This means that there is no problem achieving good conductity between the coil and a central former, so the coils can be quickly and easily exchanged by the user. It also means that should a reactor ever block irretrievably, the component that needs to be replaced is relatively inexpensive.
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Add Autosampler for full automation
When the Vapourtec R Series is linked to an autosampler/fraction collector, it becomes possible to
- Synthesise whole libraries completely unattended
- Use the results of one reaction directly as the reagents in a subsequent reaction
For more information regarding the autosampler option, click here
Find out more
If you'd like to find out more about the Vapourtec R Series , its autosampler capability or the copper reactor,
Then please contact us on +44 (0) 1284 728659 or info@vapourtec.com
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