New advances in microwave-assisted green chemical processes at the University of Turin with synthWAVE and flexiWAVE

The University of Turin, founded in 1404 by Prince Ludovico of Savoia, is currently one of the three best Italian Universities with Bologna and Padua (ANVUR national ranking 2011-2014). The DSTF is well known for the development of enabling technologies for process intensification in green and sustainable chemistry. The DSTF has active collaboration with big companies (Ferrero SpA, DSM nutritional products, Lavazza SpA, Indena SpA, Bracco Imaging SpA etc) and is partner of several EU H2020 projects.

The Group equipped itself with a Milestone synthWAVE high-pressure microwave reactor in 2016 with the intent of enhancing the traditional methods published on Chem. Mater., Vol. 12, No. 7, 2000. with a microwave system. Before the introduction of the synthWAVE, they were working on hydrothermal reactions with conventional heating sources for hydrothermal synthesis with the main challenge of reducing crystallization times that took several days. It essentially hindered the lab’s overall production since when they conducted hydrothermal reactions for synthesizing mesoporous silica, they couldn’t control the atmosphere and pressure inside the reactor and it took at least 2 days for the hydrothermal reaction to complete.

The group selected the synthWAVE to provide unique capabilities for their researchers and ‘expand experimental freedom’ so they could try new experimental conditions such as non-ambient atmosphere and extremely high pressure.
The main reason for choosing the Milestone synthWAVE is that it is the only high-pressure assisted microwave reactor available on the market. It handles single or multiple reactions at temperatures up to 300 °C and pressures to 199 bar.
With the synthWAVE, researchers have increased throughput thereby dramatically increasing the number of reactions per week with faster method development and parallel screening. The true value and the key advantage of the synthWAVE is the performance: microwave technology changed the way they design and optimize synthetic protocols. Moreover, they are able to develop quick synthesis of mesoporous silica and template-free synthesis of mesoporous carbon nitride.