Enhanced Reaction Efficiency in Continuous Flow

Abstract

Continuous flow reactors are enabling tools that can significantly benefit chemical reactions, especially those that are path length dependent (e.g., photochemical), mixing or transport dependent (e.g., gas‐liquid), exothermic, or utilize hazardous or unstable intermediates. In this review, it is demonstrated how the nearly instantaneous mixing, exceptionally fast mass transfer, safe access to high temperatures and pressures, and high surface area to volume ratio can be leveraged to improve product yield, reaction rates and/or selectivity. By showcasing five synthetic methodologies examined by our group, it is hoped that the reader will gain an appreciation of the accessible and transformative nature of flow chemistry for improving existing transformations, enabling rapid optimization, and for developing new methodologies that depend on precise parameter controls.

Light on the Horizon: Current Research and Future Perspectives in Flow Photochemistry

“…The Advantages of Continuous-Flow Processes 9,10 With the development of flow chemistry, Organic Photochemistry has gained value for the synthetic community and industry due to its interesting applications in milder and greener conditions. One important problem for photochemical reactions that use continuous-flow processes is the ability to scaling it up easily using different reactor volumes or parallel multi-reactors (numbering-up).…”

Seven‐Step Continuous Flow Synthesis of Linezolid Without Intermediate Purification

“…The adoption of continuous flow technology for the synthesis of natural products, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), functional materials, and other molecules of interest has been largely motivated by its key advantages relative to batch methodologies. Among these advantages are the ability to access underutilized chemical transformations, improve the selectivity of target molecules through greater control of reaction conditions, and achieve faster scale‐up and greater synthetic efficiency . While a continuous flow strategy offers many benefits, it is interesting to note that a majority of reported syntheses do not exceed two steps and those that do, typically require off‐line intermediate purification.…”

Process Intensification – An Unbroken Trend in Chemical Engineering

“…Further process intensification can be achieved through continuous flow reactors . Furthermore, several recent publications illustrate the benefits of advanced reactor concepts, e.g., packed‐bed‐, pneumatic nebulizer‐, slug flow, annular flow, vortex or luminescent solar concentrator reactors .…”