We report a continuous flow method for the process intensification
of commercially important propylenedioxythiophene (ProDOT) monomers.
A new four-step synthetic route was designed to make the whole process
more economical and continuous flow amenable. Apart from being safe
and having a higher throughput via continuous flow, we could optimize
each of the synthetic steps to quantitative conversion. GC–MS
analysis was used to monitor each of the processes during optimization.
The overall process could be completed in around 65 min, starting
from the commercially available materials, as compared to the few
days via the reported batch processes. Furthermore, we have shown
that the most critical step of the Williamson etherification could
be intensified via continuous flow to the space–time yield
(STY) of 63 g/h/L as compared to 0.16 g/h/L via the traditional batch
process. As all the synthetic steps in our continuous flow process
were optimized to quantitative conversions, it opens up the possibility
of telescoping of the whole process. We believe that our findings
will be able to fill the existing gap in the process intensification
for the synthesis of commercially important ProDOT-based monomers.
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