Reproducibility and scalability of solvent-free microwave-assisted reactions: from domestic ovens to controllable parallel applications

The heating of different parallel arrays in domestic ovens offers the possibility to perform multiple reactions in one irradiation experiment, blending the advantages of microwave heating technology and parallel chemistry. However, they are usually performed without an appropriate temperature control; thus, reproducibility becomes a major issue limiting the application of such reactions. This is exemplified when working at a different scales or using different instruments. For the first time a typical solvent-free reaction described in a domestic oven has been reproduced in monomode reactor, scaled up in a controlled multimode oven and reproduced in parallel, 24 reactions were carried out in a well plate. Parallel reactions were performed in a Weflon multiwell plate to assure identical conditions for each individual reaction. As many reactions under microwave irradiation have been performed in solvent-free conditions, this result opens new possibilities in reproducibility, scalability and combinatorial chemistry and permits to take advantage of many synthetic procedures described in domestic ovens.