Discover CoolMate

The latest extension in this context is the Discover CoolMate (Fig. 3.26), a microwave system for performing sub-ambient temperature chemistry. The reactor is equipped with a jacketed low-temperature vessel, and the system s microwave-transparent cooling medium and chilling technology keep the bulk temperature low (-80 to +35 °C). Thus, thermal degradation of compounds is prevented while micro-wave energy is introduced to the reaction mixture. 

Simultaneous external cooling enables more microwave power to be distributed directly to the reaction mixture. Published applications of the simultaneous cooling technique are very rare so far, probably because of the lack of availability of a convenient instrument. This problem was recently overcome by release of the CEM Discover CoolMate monomode instrument for small-scale experiments which can maintain low temperatures in the region —80 to +35 °C [140]. Scaling up of this method has been solved by use of a cryostat in combination with multimode equipment (Milestone, Italy Shikoku Instrumentation, Japan). 

In addition to PowerMax cooling, CEM has also developed the CoolMate peripheral that can be fitted to the Discover line of microwave units. This uses a microwave transparent cryogenic fluid that is pumped around a specially designed microwave vessel while a reaction is being irradiated. The fluid can be cooled to tanperatures as low as -60 °C, allowing maximum microwave irradiation while keeping the solution relatively cool. There have been only a handful of reports in the scientific literature of the use of the CoolMate or home-made variants in synthetic chemistry." CoolMate has also been used as a tool to probe the existence, or otherwise, of micro-wave effects. ... 

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