Continuous‐flow multi‐step synthesis takes the advantages of microchannel flow chemistry and may transform the conventional multi‐step organic synthesis by using integrated synthetic systems. To realize the goal, however, innovative chemical methods and techniques are urgently required to meet the significant remaining challenges. In the past few years, by using green reactions, telescoped chemical design, and/or novel in‐line separation techniques, major and rapid advancement has been made in this direction. This minireview summarizes the most recent reports (2017–2020) on continuous‐flow synthesis of functional molecules. Notably, several complex active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) have been prepared by the continuous‐flow approach. Key technologies to the successes and remaining challenges are discussed. These results exemplified the feasibility of using modern continuous‐flow chemistry for complex synthetic targets, and bode well for the future development of integrated, automated artificial synthetic systems.
To achieve a safe, efficient, and sustainable (even fully automated) production for the continuous‐flow hydrogenation reactions, which is among the most often used reactions in chemical synthesis, new catalyst types and immobilization methods as well as flow reactors and technologies have been developed over the last years; in addition, these approaches have been combined with new and transformational technologies in other fields such as artificial intelligence. Thus, attention from academic and industry practitioners has increasingly focused on improving the performance of hydrogenation in flow mode by reducing the reaction times, increasing selectivities, and achieve safe operation. This Minireview aims to summarize the most recent research results on this topic with focus on the advantages, current limitations, and future directions of flow chemistry.
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