The Dynamic Reaction Monitoring (DReaM) Facility is part of the Research Infrastructure and Facilities department. The set-up was designed to monitor chemical changes in homogeneous reactions as they are taking place, using a variety of analytical techniques. You can visit our equipment page for more information on the instruments housed in the DReaM Facility.

Chemical reactions can be set up in the fume hood or the glovebox. The reaction mixture is then continuously pumped around the flow loop using a peristaltic pump, or a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) pump.

The flow loop is comprised of 1/16" and 1/32" PEEK tubing, so in order for the reaction mixture to reach the flow cells or sampling loops of the analytical equipment, it must be homogeneous.

Analysis by NMR, UV/Vis and polarimetry is non-destructive and the reaction mixture that passes through these flow cells is returned to the reaction vessel after analysis. For analysis by MS and HPLC, small quantities of reaction mixture are sampled from the flow path and will not be returned to the reaction vessel.

It is possible to analyse your reaction using just FlowNMR, or all of our equipment, or any number of modules in between. Reactions need to be set up with a minimum volume of 10 mL, to ensure the majority of the reaction mixture is in the reaction vessel at any given time.

We can use information gained from the DReaM Facility to identify intermediates or by-products, build up kinetic profiles and determine mechanistic details of the reactions taking place.