AFRICA FAQs

Hardware Answers

Q.What is the temperature range of the AFRICA system?
A. There are two types of temperature range available for each heater cooler plate, either 0C to +150C or 40C to +300C.  As each Heater/Cooler has two temperature plates, it is possible to configure both to the lower range, both to the higher range or one of each. 

Q. What is the maximum pressure available in the AFRICA system?
A. The reaction can be pressurised up to 8 bar (120psi) and all of the system (including the chip reactors) is rated to 20bar.  Note that the only exception to this is that the tube reactors are only rated to 10bar max pressure.

Q. How many reagents can be combined in 1 reactor?
A. Up to three substrate/reagent solutions can be combined simultaneously in 1 reactor.

Q. How many reactors/reagents can I use in total?
A. Up to 8 reaction steps and 8 substrate/reagent solutions can be controlled by the software in one system. 

Q. How chemically resistant is the AFRICA system?
A. The AFRICA system has very high chemical resistance as all the wetted parts in the flow stream are either glass (c.f. round bottom flask) or PTFE based fluoropolymers (c.f. stirrer bar).

Q. How does mixing take place?
A. The mixing occurs by diffusion across a very short distance (typically less than 200um).  This results in very high quality and very reproducible mixing. 

Q. How does the HPLC take a sample from the flowing stream?
A. Using a chemically resistant 6-2 valve, the Sampler and Dilutor module takes a 5ul sample of the flow stream.  This is diluted "on the fly" whilst being pumped into a regular HPLC injection valve.

Software Answers   

Q. Does the AFRICA software allow real unattended operation?
A. Yes. The AFRICA software controlls the system automatically. This allows safe and unattended operation increasing productivity and throughput.

Q. Do I have to calculate the required flow rates?
A. No. The AFRICA software allows familiar values such as reaction time, reactor volume, concentration of solution and equivalents of regents to calculate all the experimental flow rates.

Q. How do I know when to collect a sample?
A. When using the HPLC, a sample will automatically be taken for you.  A voice command will instruct when the sample is being taken.

Q. Can I save my experiment tasks?
A. Yes it is possible to save any experiment you perform, along with the data generated.