Digitization of multistep organic synthesis in reactionware for on-demand pharmaceuticals

Abstract

A plastic plan for organic synthesis The infrastructure for chemical synthesis typically lies at either end of a spectrum: small-scale studies in ad hoc assemblies of glassware or large-scale production in capital-intensive custom reactors. Kitson et al. report a hybrid protocol that customizes a blueprint for synthesis of a target compound in a series of interconnected plastic modules, which can be assembled en masse by 3D printing (see the Perspective by Hornung). The approach, demonstrated for the commercial muscle relaxant baclofen, establishes a systematic workflow that is potentially amenable to automation: All that is necessary for synthesis and purification is the introduction of stock solutions and variation of temperature or pressure. Science , this issue p. 314 ; see also p. 273