Application of an automated chemistry workstation to problems in synthetic chemistry

Abstract

An automated chemistry workstation is applied to problems in the synthetic chemistry of porphyrins. A factorial design study (sixteen experiments, 96 data points) was performed to examine the role of catalyst and reactant concentrations on porphyrin yield. Four experiments could be scheduled to run concurrently; all sixteen experiments were completed in less than 1 day of workstation time. The response surface from this experiment shows the conditions for achieving the highest yield. A simplex optimization was performed over the same reaction space, requiring fewer experiments to arrive at the optimal reaction parameters. A strategic search was performed to screen a list of reagents for catalytic activity. The effective concentration range of each catalyst was surveyed by systematic modification of an ongoing reaction. By terminating reactions when a yield threshold was surpassed or when the entire concentration range had been spanned, compounds with catalytic activity and their effective concentration ranges were identified with minimal experimentation. A new scientific finding was made concerning the catalytic activity of methanesulfonic acid in the porphyrin condensation. Automated chemistry workstations of this type should yield rapid accelerations in scientific research.