A key value of the START system is its flexibility. The START is a modular system; it can be optimized for student use or original research, and can be changed from one configuration to the other in minutes.

To optimize the START system for instructional use, Milestone provides the Teaching Lab Kit (see photo). Central to the kit is the 16-position rotor, which allows reactions to be reproduced in up to 16 glass reactor vessels simultaneously. Students can prepare similar reactions at their own work stations, insert them into the rotor to be processed alongside their classmates' reactions, and then take the finished reactions back to their own stations to analyze the results.

Synthesis reactions run faster in the microwave than with conventional heating methods, and deliver larger, more pure yields. Synthesis of fluorescein, for example, can take 10 hours with conventional methods, and deliver a yield of 70%. The same reaction in a microwave, using the same chemistry, can be completed in only 35 minutes, and deliver a yield of 82%, with fewer by-products.

That speed has the power to change the way classes are taught. With conventional methods, a single reaction can take hours, or even overnight—requiring that a lesson be broken up across multiple class periods. Given the speed of microwave-enhanced reactions, it is possible to contain a lesson within a single class period. This prevents extracurricular concerns from intruding on the students' attention, and should improve their understanding and retention of the material. Such speed also affords the opportunity to run multiple reactions in a single lab, or to devote more time to analyzing and discussing experimental results, rather than to running the reaction itself.

Two different styles of vessel covers are included with the Teaching Lab Kit. One is for work at ambient pressure, and uses a reflux-style pressure venting mechanism. The other features a weighted valve to apply slightly elevated (1.5 bar / 20 psi) pressure to the vessel contents, and uses a gravity-based venting mechanism. Both styles of vessel cover will vent-and-reseal, dissipating excess pressure and then allowing the reaction to continue. Pressurized reactions allow temperatures slightly higher than the specific reagent's normal boiling point to be attained; this results in a further reduction of the reaction time, while still ensuring safe operating conditions.

A particularly valuable part of the START package is the QuickSTART Handbook. Milestone's chemists have thoroughly tested a variety of common "real world" organic synthesis reactions to optimize them for the microwave platform. The handbook provides illustrated, step-by-step instructions for these predesigned experiments, which can be carried out in traditional reflux glassware or the 16-position rotor. Instructors can perform these reactions with their students, or use them to become familiar with the technology prior to designing their own reactions. The QuickSTART Handbook is, of course, just the beginning, as almost any reflux reaction in the literature can be easily adapted to the microwave.