The 500 MHz Bruker NMR spectrometer with a Prodigy cryoprobe is the centrepiece of the DReaM Facility. Using the InsightMR flowprobe and software, the homogeneous reaction mixture is pumped directly from the reaction vessel into the flow cell in the spectrometer, analysed in flow and then returned to the reaction vessel.

The Prodigy cryoprobe is able to observe nuclei with Larmor frequencies of ¹⁵N and above. Routinely, ¹H, ¹⁹F, ³¹P and ¹³C experiments are used.

The spectrometer is able to maintain reaction temperatures between -20 and 80 °C.

The DReaM Facility hosts two mass spectrometers, one to study the liquid phase and one to study the gas phase, or headspace, of the reaction.

• The liquid phase mass spectrometer is a Bruker MicroTOFQ. It can sample from the reaction mixture in the flow path as it returns to the reaction vessel.

• The gas phase mass spectrometer is a Hiden HPR20. This instrument samples directly from the headspace of the reaction vessel. It can detect species from 1 - 300 AMU. For standalone applications it can be used for up to 30 bar pressure, but the remainder of the flow equipment is only rated to 10 bar.

The Ocean Optics UV/Vis spectrometer and the Anton Parr MCP 100 polarimeter have flow cells within the flow pathway, so the reaction mixture can be passed though for analysis, after passing through the NMR flow cell.

Samples are taken from the reaction mixture in the flow pathway for chiral HPLC analysis, on our Agilent 1260 series HPLC, using a method developed by the user in advance. Where samples are not suitable for HPLC analysis directly from the reaction mixture, it is also be an option to manually take samples from the reaction mixture for work up prior to injection into the HPLC.