Turning ordinary plastic containers into reusable chemical reactors

What is it about?

We developed a simple way to turn an ordinary polystyrene container into a reusable chemical reactor. Treating its inner surface with a specially designed palladium–theophylline compound gives the reactor wall a catalytic function. We used the resulting containers to form carbon–carbon bonds at room temperature in a mixture of water and ethanol. The container could be reused, and we also demonstrated the approach in a larger, tube-shaped circulating reactor.

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Why is it important?

Catalysts are often prepared separately and then placed inside a reactor. Our approach gives an ordinary polystyrene container a catalytic function through a simple surface treatment. The reactor works at room temperature and can be reused; adding salt extended reuse of the vial-shaped reactor to 20 reaction cycles. We also demonstrated a tube-shaped circulating reactor that handles a larger volume without a packed catalyst bed. In the future, suitable surface treatments may extend this concept to materials such as glass, enabling reactors that withstand a wider range of chemicals and temperatures.