A chemical synthesis platform based on a particularly simple chip is described herein, where reactions take place atop a hydrophobic substrate patterned with a circular hydrophilic liquid trap. The overall supporting hardware (heater, rotating carousel of reagent dispensers, etc.) can be packaged into a very compact format (about the size of a coffee cup). We demonstrate the consistent synthesis of [18F]fallypride with high yield, and show that protocols optimized using a high-throughput optimization platform we have developed can be readily translated to this device with no changes or reoptimization.