Networking chemical robots for reaction multitasking

Abstract

The development of the internet of things has led to an explosion in the number of networked devices capable of control and computing. However, whilst common place in remote sensing, these approaches have not impacted chemistry due to difficulty in developing systems flexible enough for experimental data collection. Herein we present a simple and affordable (<$500) chemistry capable robot built with a standard set of hardware and software protocols that can be networked to coordinate many chemical experiments in real time. We demonstrate how multiple processes can be done with two internet-connected robots collaboratively, exploring a set of azo-coupling reactions in a fraction of time needed for a single robot, as well as encoding and decoding information into a network of oscillating reactions. The system can also be used to assess the reproducibility of chemical reactions and discover new reaction outcomes using game playing to explore a chemical space.