The Gas Addition Module 1 (GAM 1) provides a safe and efficient means of performing gas-liquid reactions under continuous flow-through conditions. Based on an ingenious ‘tube-in-tube’ design developed by scientists at Cambridge University in the UK1, it promotes rapid diffusion of pressurised gas through gas-permeable tubing to quickly create a gas saturated solvent stream in typically less than 10 seconds.
Liquid (usually in the form of an organic solvent) is passed through a gas-permeable inner tube which is nested inside a closed, thick-walled outer tube filled under pressure with a reactive gas. The gas is able to diffuse across the membrane into the liquid phase, but the liquid cannot move in the opposite direction.
The Gas Addition Module is compatible with a wide range of reactive gases (e.g. CO, CO2, H2, D2, ethene, ethyne, SO2) and organic solvents (e.g. THF, MeCN, MeOH, PrOH) and is designed to be connected in-line with any FlowSyn continuous flow reactor. Its primary purpose is to provide a solvent feed stream pre-saturated with gas, but it can also be used at ambient temperature as a reactor in its own right.
An alternative gas-liquid reactor (GAM II) that is able to supply gas on demand to a flowing reaction is also available.
1M. O'Brien, I. R. Baxendale and S. V. Ley; Org.Lett. 2010, 1596-1598.