Patent ID: 7373259

Claim:
A computer-controlled reaction apparatus for simultaneously conducting chemical reactions on a plurality of samples by maintaining the samples in chemical isolation from each other and subjecting each of the samples to substantially identical conditions, comprising: (a) a generally cylindrical reactor housing having a bore and a central axis, the housing comprised of: i) a loading/unloading section having an airlock; ii) a reaction section; iii) an analytical monitoring system; iv) a drive section; v) a distribution manifold system; (b) a gas-distribution and pressure control system in communication with the reactor housing; (c) a positioning system connected to the drive section; (d) a temperature control system for controlling the temperature of the reactor housing; (e) a reaction assembly, contained within the reactor housing, and movable in the housing bore in a direction along the axis of the housing, the reaction assembly comprising: i) a cylindrical outer body having a bore, a plurality of ports and a fluid distribution manifold; ii) a cylindrical inner body contained within the bore of the outer body and having: A) a bore and a plurality of ports, and B) a sample holder containing a plurality of sample holding positions for containing the samples to be reacted, the sample holder being receivable within the bore of inner body and movable along the axis to a fully-inserted position, wherein, when the sample holder is in the fully-inserted position within the inner body, each of the plurality of reaction wells is aligned with each of the plurality of ports of the inner body; (f) an analytical monitoring system comprising: at least one optical port and at least one optical arrangement, comprising a paired source and detector, the at least one optical arrangement being capable of performing a measurement, at one or more ultraviolet, visible or infrared wavelengths, of a sample contained at a sample holding position to characterize the sample; (g) a computer controller, connected to the gas-distribution and pressure control system, the positioning system, the temperature control system, and the analytical monitoring system; wherein the reaction assembly is movable between the loading/unloading section, the reaction section, and the analytical monitoring system; and wherein the drive section mechanically links the reaction assembly to the positioning system, so that the reaction assembly is positioned to each of a plurality of predetermined monitoring positions, such that at least one of the reaction wells is aligned with the at least one analytical port at each of the plurality of monitoring positions.