Although the pharmaceutical
and fine chemical industries primarily
utilize batch homogeneous reactions to carry out chemical transformations,
emerging platforms seek to improve existing shortcomings by designing
effective heterogeneous catalysis systems in continuous flow reactors.
In this work, we present a versatile network-supported palladium (Pd)
catalyst using a hybrid polymer of poly(methylvinylether-alt-maleic anhydride) and branched polyethyleneimine for intensified
continuous flow synthesis of complex organic compounds via heterogeneous
Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling and nitroarene hydrogenation
reactions. The hydrophilicity of the hybrid polymer network facilitates
the reagent mass transfer throughout the bulk of the catalyst particles.
Through rapid automated exploration of the continuous and discrete
parameters, as well as substrate scope screening, we identified optimal
hybrid network-supported Pd catalyst composition and process parameters
for Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions of aryl bromides
with steady-state yields up to 92% with a nominal residence time of
20 min. The developed heterogeneous catalytic system exhibits high
activity and mechanical stability with no detectable Pd leaching at
reaction temperatures up to 95 °C. Additionally, the versatility
of the hybrid network-supported Pd catalyst is demonstrated by successfully
performing continuous nitroarene hydrogenation with short residence
times (<5 min) at room temperature. Room temperature hydrogenation
yields of >99% were achieved in under 2 min nominal residence times
with no leaching and catalyst deactivation for more than 20 h continuous
time on stream. This catalytic system shows its industrial utility
with significantly improved reaction yields of challenging substrates
and its utility of environmentally-friendly solvent mixtures, high
reusability, scalable and cost-effective synthesis, and multi-reaction
successes.