Research Article
Received: 16 February 2010
Revised: 19 March 2010
Accepted: 25 March 2010
Published online in Wiley Interscience: 29 April 2010
(
www.interscience.com) DOI 10.1002/mrc.2610
A simple flowcell for reaction monitoring
by NMR
a
b
a∗
M. Khajeh, M. A. Bernstein and G. A. Morris
A simple, cheap and flexible flowcell based on a standard 5 mm NMR tube, designed for the monitoring of reactions but of wide
applicability, is described. No modification of the NMR instrument is needed, allowing the system to be employed with any
conventional NMR probe and magnet. The system is robust and economical in use of reagents, and can be used for studying
both homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions. Copyright ꢀc 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
1
Keywords: NMR; H; flowcell; kinetics; reaction monitoring
Introduction
PEEK HPLC tubing (8) runs concentrically to the base of the tube.
The PEEK tubing is held concentric by grooved PTFE spacers at the
bottom of the tube and above the active volume, and by four PTFE
grooved sleeves (18) that also serve to reduce the dead volume of
the cell. The NMR tube is held in the headpiece by an M8 threaded
bush (4) that compresses an O-ring (5). The inlet HPLC tubing runs
continuously through the headpiece, and the outlet tube (9) is
mated to the headpiece, both held by O-rings (3) compressed by
M3 threaded bushes (2). The flowcell is held in the appropriate
turbine (17), at the appropriate depth, for the probe used. As a
precaution against probe damage from reactant leaks, a liquid
sensor (7; Sensortechnics, type OLP01B0F3) is placed below the
headpiece. If the turbine design permits (as with Varian turbines),
the active element of the sensor can be placed directly on the
turbine, and a glass tube (16) can be glued to the turbine with
epoxy resin to contain any leaks; if not (as with Bruker turbines),
the sensor can be placed on a PEEK disc through which the NMR
tube passes and which is held within the glass tube, in both
cases sealed with O-rings. The liquid sensor is connected to an
electronic interlock (21) that switches off the pump in the event
of a leak being detected. (To date, the only occasion on which
the safety system was activated was when a loose union above
the headpiece leaked as a result of a reactant precipitating in the
system.)
The application of NMR spectroscopy to kinetic and mechanistic
studies of chemical reactions is not limited to static methods,
in which a solution is placed in an NMR tube and inserted into
[
1]
a magnet for measurements, but also includes stopped or
[
2]
continuous flow methods. Flow NMR techniques have been
[
3]
used since 1951 in a variety of areas, such as studies of protein
folding,[ food science[6] and HPLC-NMR ; recent examples of
the use of flow NMR for reaction monitoring include Refs [8–10].
Most applications of flow NMR use dedicated flow probes.
These allow the balance between sample volume, sensitivity and
resolution to be optimised, but are expensive and are relatively
inflexible, typically being optimised for a single nucleus or group
of nuclei; they also generally have a limited temperature range
and are very vulnerable to blockage. This paper describes a simple,
cheap and flexible flowcell based on a standard 5 mm NMR tube.
Several designs for rapid mixing cells based on 5 mm NMR tubes
4,5]
[7]
[
9,11]
have recently been published
; in contrast, the cell described
here is designed for continuous or stopped-flow use (but not
for reactions on sub-minute timescales). No modification of the
NMR instrument is needed, allowing the system to be employed
with any conventional 5 mm or greater NMR probe and magnet.
The system is robust and economical in use of reagents, and
can be used for studying both homogeneous and heterogeneous
reactions. The only materials in contact with the reaction mixture
are glass, poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) and poly(ether ether
ketone) (PEEK), accommodating a wide range of solvents and
reactants. The reaction vessel is placed outside of the magnet;
therefore the composition of the sample can be varied during the
experiment if any reagents need to be added. It is also relatively
straightforward to perform reactions at high or low temperature,
or under an inert atmosphere. The spectral quality obtainable is
comparable to that available from conventional high-resolution
probes.
A number of features of the design are noteworthy. First, the use
of a concentric inlet pipe minimises disturbance of the magnetic
field homogeneity by maintaining cylindrical symmetry, while the
use of narrow bore tubing ensures that the frequency-shifted
signal from within the tubing is very small. Any deviation from
concentricity will lead to significant degradation in line shape
and difficulty in shimming. Second, the cell geometry is intended
−
1
for relatively low flow rates (<2 ml min ), since pre-polarisation
takes place largely in the portion of the NMR tube between the
∗
Correspondence to: G. A. Morris, School of Chemistry, The University of
Experimental
Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
E-mail: Gareth.Morris@manchester.ac.uk
Flowcell
a School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
b AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood, Loughborough, Leics LE11 5RH, UK
The flowcell (Figs 1 and 2) consists of a standard 5 mm NMR tube
(
6) fitted with a PEEK headpiece (1), through which a length of
Magn. Reson. Chem. 2010, 48, 516–522
Copyright ꢀc 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.