Thales Nanotechnology (ThalesNano) has unveiled a new H-Cube flow reactor that is designed to bring hydrogenation reactions to students.

The firm, which provides a number of CatCarts using palladium on carbon and Raney nickel catalysts, has announced that the new reactor is designed for use in higher education laboratories and is aimed at an educational environment.

Because the reactions are run in the H-Cube flow reactor in a safer way than conventional methodologies, it means that universities are more willing to allow students to carry out the reactions.

Dr Ferenc Darvas, President and Chairman at ThalesNano, explained: "Undergraduate chemists at many universities are not allowed to practice hydrogenation during their practical session, due to safety concerns with handling hydrogen cylinders and pyrophoric catalysts.

"It is essential for their future industrial or academic career to gain first hand practical experience with hydrogenation during their educational years, since approximately five to ten per cent of reactions in the whole of the chemical industry are a kind of hydrogenation."

Sources:

ThalesNano Announces the Launch of H-Cube Tutor, 7/06/07
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-07-2007/0004603762&EDATE=

ThalesNano makes hydrogenation reactions 'academic', 14/06/07
http://www.labtechnologist.com/news/ng.asp?n=77387

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