Robotic synthesis system

SOPHAS M (Figure 13.10) is an automatic modular solid-phase synthesizer based on a robotic system. Synthesis can be carried out in a variety of reaction vessels, such as 96-well microtiter plates, tubes, or vials. The vessels are mowed on the 1- or 1.2-m-length workbench in aluminum carriers (12 mm x 86 mm) by a robotic arm. The content of the reaction vessels is isolated from the atmosphere by a pierceable double seal. There are four independent pipetting probes on the synthesizer. Each probe has three independent channels. The channels allow the synthesizer to simultaneously aspirate and add washing solvents and nitrogen. 

As already mentioned above, a different strategy to achieve high throughput in microwave-assisted reactions can be realized by performing automated sequential microwave synthesis in monomode microwave reactors. Since it is currently not feasible to have more than one reaction vessel in a monomode microwave cavity, a robotic system has been integrated into a platform that moves individual reaction... 

For these reasons, researchers have recently focused on developing faster robotic systems and more sensitive analytical metabolite identification tools [5-9]. However, such techniques are usually resource demanding, consuming a considerable amount of compound, and cannot be used before compound synthesis. Also, because of the increasing number of potential candidates, experimental metabolite identification remains a huge challenge. 

The gel synthesis operation was carried out using an in-house built robotic system (Fig. 5.2), which can perform automatically the following routines ... 

Fig. 5.2 An in-house-developed robotic system for hydrothermal synthesis detail of solid dispensing operation.

Fig. 5.3 Reproducibility test for the synthesis of beta zeolite using a robotic system for the gel synthesis and a multi-autoclave rack for the zeolite crystallization.

Integration of automated amide synthesis with automated purification has been implemented by workers at Bristol-Myers Squibb [89] using a Zymark robotic system. 

Since 1992, workers at Chiron have extended the use of their Zymark robot system from peptide synthesis to libraries containing up to 5000 peptoid [oligo(N-substituted glycines)] [56,91-94] analogues. 

It was very time-consuming to screen substances in animal tests for efficacy and to prepare lead analogues by classical synthesis. Therefore, it is not surprising that the researchers looked for alternatives. Today pharmaceutical companies apply computerized robotic systems in drug discovery. The starting point is the chemical library. This library does not contain books, but chemicals. Many companies keep small samples of all chemical compounds that they ever synthesized or extracted from the plant material. The amount of the samples is usually small and they are kept in microplates in dedicated temperature-controlled storage facilities. Chemical libraries of large pharmaceutical companies contain several million different compounds. 

Several feasibility and application studies have been performed using the developed electrochemical robotic system aiming on the exploration of the instrumental limits in automation of electrochemical synthesis and analysis. Parallelization of processes and miniaturization (Fig. 14.17) for higher throughput was a major objective. 

A library of 83 metalloporphyrins was generated by parallel synthesis.75 The substitution pattern was varied at the meso position of the porphyrines, and the central metal ions were altered (Table 14.3). To investigate the use of the members of the library as electrocatalytic material for sensitive sensors for nitric oxide (NO), a complex assay sequence was fulfilled by means of the electrochemical robotic system (Fig. 14.24). In first step, residual water was removed... 

High surface area oxides are attractive materials for numerous applications in catalysis and sorption [1], There are many techniques to manually prepare these materials, such as precipitation, sol-gel pathways, templating routes and so on [2,3,4,5]. We have developed a novel versatile route which offers a simple and straightforward manner to prepare a great variety of different oxides with even higher surface areas. This method avoids filtering steps and handling of suspensions which enables simple pipette robotic systems to prepare these materials. The method is suitable for the preparation of defined phases, such as spinels or perowskites, but also for the synthesis of amorphous or multiphase mixed metal oxides and can easily be parallelized. 

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