Synthesis and Testing Tools

The reactors used in organic and organometallic chemistry research did not change much from the 1850s to the 1990s. The chemical industry is a conservative one, so the majority of liquid-phase reactions still take place in batch reactors in one form or another, while most gas-phase reactions are carried out in flow reactors. Nevertheless, recent developments in reactor design and process intensification are now changing the picture [37]. 

The main advantage of the grid approach is that the catalyst position is well defined. This is easy to do with solid catalysts, but not with homogeneous ones in solution. One way of solving this problem is to attach the homogeneous catalysts to a solid support, such as polymer beads [45] peptide scaffolds [46], or inorganic monoliths [47]. 

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