400 Green Chemical Engineering
volume), sealed using PTFE washers and connected to an HPLC ow system with a back-
pressure regulator. The ow cell was inserted into the cavity of a self-tunable monomodal
microwave synthesiser, irradiated and stabilised at the required reaction temperature
through moderation of microwave power before the introduction of reagents into the
reactor. This system possessed a number of advantages over commercially available coils,
including simple measurement of the ow cell temperature, no additional and expensive
equipment required short of an HPLC pump, and the potential to carry out heteroge-
neous as well as homogeneous reactions simply by immobilising a catalyst on the support
in the glass tube.
5.1.3 High-