High-power UV-LED irradiation (365 nm) effectively accelerated the decatungstate-anion-catalyzed oxidation of benzyl alcohol 1 to benzoic acid 3 via benzaldehyde 2. As the power of the UV-LED light increased, both the selectivity and yield of benzoic acid also increased. The reaction was finished within 1 h to give 3 in a 93% yield using 2 mol% of decatungstate anion catalyst. The combination of a flow photoreactor and high-power irradiation accelerated the oxidation reaction to an interval of only a few minutes.

In this communication flow Friedel-Crafts alkylation was studied using hydroxy-substituted sulfonic acid-functionalized silica as a catalyst and 1-adamantanol as a model substrate. The reaction of 1-adamantanol (1a) with toluene (2a) proceeded well with 5 min of residence time at 120 C to give good yield of 1-tolyladamantane (3a) as a 1:9 mixture of meta and para isomers. When the flow synthesis was carried out over 2.5 hr of running time, the collected five fractions contain the product 3a in 97-92% yields, suggesting the durability of the catalyst.

In this article, we discuss how effective photo-induced organic reactions became when applied evolving photo flow technologies through our experiences over these two last decades. We started with the flow update of traditional [2 + 2] cycloaddition using Mikroglas Dwell device as a flow reactor and a compact light source, such as blacklight, instead of a high-pressure mercury lamp. Then we examined Barton nitrite reaction using a photo flow reactor consisting of stainless-steel channels and a quartz glass top provided by DNS. Again the use of blacklight was successful. However, the energy profile of these reactions was improved further by the use of LED lights. We used a photo-flow set-up, consisting of stainless steel engraved microchannels covered by a quartz top (MiChS L-1) and a sodium lamp, for the isomerization of a fulleroid to PCBM. Photo-redox-catalyzed alkene alkylation proceeded within a shortened reaction time when the same photo flow reactor and white LED were used instead of a batch reactor. Photo-induced reductive 5-exo-dig radical cyclization and reduction of alkenyl halides proceeded smoothly, thanks to the combination of a photo flow reactor and low-pressure Hg lamp. We also applied flow technologies for photo-bromination and chlorination of C-H bonds. Photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol by molecular oxygen became quick when high-power LED irradiation was employed.

Our previous work established a continuous-flow synthesis of pristane, which is a saturated branched alkane obtained from a Basking Shark. The dehydration of an allylic alcohol that is the key to a tetraene was carried out using a packed-bed reactor charged by an acid–silica catalyst (HO-SAS) and flow hydrogenation using molecular hydrogen via a Pd/C catalyst followed. The present work relies on the additional propensity of Pd/C to serve as an acid catalyst, which allows us to perform a flow synthesis of pristane from the aforementioned key allylic alcohol in the presence of molecular hydrogen using Pd/C as a single catalyst, which is applied to both dehydration and hydrogenation. The present one-column-two-reaction-flow system could eliminate the use of an acid catalyst such as HO-SAS and lead to a significant simplification of the production process.

We report the high-speed C–H chlorination of ethylene carbonate, which gives chloroethylene carbonate, a precursor to vinylene carbonate. A novel photoflow setup designed for a gas–liquid biphasic reaction turned out to be useful for the direct use of chlorine gas. The setup employed sloped channels so as to make the liquid phase thinner, ensuring a high surface-to-volume ratio. When ethylene carbonate was introduced to the reactor, the residence time was measured to be 15 or 30 s, depending on the slope of the reactor set at 15 or 5°, respectively. Such short time of exposition sufficed the photo C–H chlorination. The partial irradiation of the flow channels also sufficed for the C–H chlorination, which is consistent with the requirement of photoirradiation for the purpose of radical initiation. Near-complete selectivity for single chlorination required the low conversion of ethylene carbonate such as 9%, which was controlled by limited introduction of chlorine gas. At a higher conversion of ethylene carbonate such as 61%, the selectivity for monochlorinated ethylene carbonate over dichlorinated ethylene carbonate was 86%. We found that the substrate contamination with water negatively influenced the performance of the C–H chlorination.