Simultaneous High-Throughput Monitoring of Urethane Reactions Using Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging

High-throughput (HTP) research is becoming more widely utilized due to its advantages in rapid screening of large parameter space. When HTP is used for reaction screening, often only the end products are analyzed by off-line techniques, leaving behind valuable process information. Information-rich spectroscopy tools have remained under-utilized in HTP workflows. In this study, near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is demonstrated to be a versatile and accurate tool that can simultaneously monitor multiple reactions, opening up future opportunities to maximize information extraction from such HTP reaction screening experiments. Model urethane reactions are used here to demonstrate the concept, and the general approach can be widely applied to any reactions involving NIR-active functional groups. The fast speed and accurate chemical information made possible by NIR HSI are expected be another important addition to the toolkit of HTP research.