A new approach to anodic substitution reaction using acoustic emulsification

We have developed a novel electrolytic system for anodic substitution reactions using acoustic emulsification. This new system involves the generation of a carbocation by anodic oxidation of a substrate, and then its reaction with a nucleophile droplet formed by ultrasonication. In this system, even if the oxidation potential of the nucleophile is lower than that of the substrate, the substrate was predominantly oxidized to give the corresponding cation intermediate because the nucleophile phase, which was insoluble in the electrolytic medium, was electro-inactive. In addition, the overoxidation of the desired products was considerably suppressed by the extraction of products from the electrolyte solution into the nucleophile phase. As a result, the anodic substitution reaction of several carbamates with allyltrimethylsilane was carried out to provide the corresponding products in good to moderate yields.     

In situ electrogeneration of o-benzoquinone and high yield reaction with benzenethiols in a microflow system

We have successfully demonstrated that a microflow reactor is extremely useful in controlling reactions involving an unstable o-benzoquinone. The key features of the method are an effective o-benzoquinone generation and its rapid use for the following reaction without decomposition in a microflow system.     

Developments in plane parallel flow channel cells

Plane parallel electrodes are favoured, in laboratory studies and industry, for electrosynthesis, environmental treatment and energy conversion. This electrode geometry offers uniform current distribution, while a flow channel ensures a controlled reaction environment. Performance can be enhanced by the use of tailored electrode surfaces, porous, three-dimensional (3D) electrodes and bipolar electrical connections. Scale-up can be achieved by increasing the electrode size, the number of electrodes in a stack, or the number of stacks in a system. Recent trends include (a) 3D printing of fast prototype cell components, (b) use of porous 3D electrode supports and their decoration, (c) development of microflow cells for electrosynthesis, (d) anodic Fenton oxidations for wastewater treatment and (e) computational models to simulate and rationalise reaction environment and performance. Future research needs are highlighted.     

An automated-flow microreactor system for quick optimization and production: application of 10- and 100-gram order productions of a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor using a Sonogashira coupling reaction

Sonogashira coupling reaction leading to a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor was investigated using an automated microreactor system, which is a sequential temperature- and flow rate-programed reaction evaluation system. By repeating the use of this computer-controlled system four times, we were able to determine the optimal conditions and quickly apply them to a 10 g scale synthesis using the same microreactor system. The optimal conditions were also applied to a 100 g scale production by using another microflow system composed of a T-shaped micromixer (200 μm id) and a stainless tube reactor (2000 μm id and 20 m length). Total time spent for both optimization and production was as short as 50 h.     

Product selectivity control induced by using liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow in a microreactor

Product selectivity control based on a liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow has been successfully demonstrated by using a microreactor. Our electrochemical microreactor system enables regioselective cross-coupling reaction of aldehyde with allylic chloride via chemoselective cathodic reduction of substrate by the combined use of suitable flow mode and corresponding cathode material. The formation of liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow in the microreactor was supported by the estimation of benzaldehyde diffusion coefficient and computational fluid dynamics simulation. The diffusion coefficient for benzaldehyde in Bu(4)NClO(4)-HMPA medium was determined to be 1.32 × 10(-7) cm(2) s(-1) by electrochemical measurements, and the flow simulation using this value revealed the formation of clear concentration gradient of benzaldehyde in the microreactor channel over a specific channel length. In addition, the necessity of the liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow was confirmed by flow mode experiments.     

Basic concepts of "cation pool" and "cation flow" methods and their applications in conventional and combinatorial organic synthesis

Carbocations have been generally considered to be relatively unstable and transient species. But the "cation pool" method enables the easy accumulation of carbocations in conventional reaction media such as dichloromethane. In the "cation pool" method, carbocations are generated by low-temperature electrochemical oxidation and accumulated in a solution. In the next step, the carbocations thus produced are allowed to react with various nucleophiles. Combinatorial parallel synthesis based upon the "cation pool" method has also been developed. The applicability of the "cation pool" method depends upon the stability of the cation that is accumulated. This problem can be overcome by the "cation flow" method. In the "cation flow" method, carbocations are generated in a microflow electrochemical system. Short residence times and efficient temperature control of the microflow system are advantageous. Combinatorial sequential synthesis has been achieved based on the "cation flow" method.     

High throughput evaluation of the production of substituted acetylenes by the Sonogashira reaction followed by the Mizoroki-Heck reaction in ionic liquids, in situ, using a novel array reactor

The parallel Sonogashira coupling reaction was carried out under copper-free condition by integrating the advantages of ionic liquids as the reaction media followed by the simultaneous-multiple Mizoroki-Heck reaction in situ by the use of a novel array reactor (SynArray-24). The device provides rapid evaluation of reactions in a short period.     

Micro wet analysis system using multi-phase laminar flows in three-dimensional microchannel network

A three-dimensional microchannel network with two-level crossings of channels was constructed in a glass microchip by sandwiching an insulating glass plate between two glass plates with microchannels followed by thermal bonding. Pressure-driven stable multi-phase laminar flows inside the three-dimensional channel network were realized by balancing flow rates of syringe pumps. Micro unit operations for mixing, reaction, solvent extraction, and detection were properly arranged in the multi-phase laminar flows, so that four parallel analyses, comprising twenty unit operations in total, could be integrated onto a single chip. Two chelating reagents and two sample solutions containing heavy metal ions (Fe(ii) or Co(ii)) were mixed and reacted in four different combinations using the three-dimensional channel network. After chelating reactions were completed, post processing (solvent extraction or addition of acid) was applied to each solution stream to remove the interferences of coexisting metal ions. Finally, target metal complexes were detected using a thermal lens microscope (TLM). Integrity of the micro system was confirmed by qualitative analysis of Fe(ii) and Co(ii). This is the first example of continuous flow chemical processing utilizing multi-phase laminar flow realized in a three-dimensional channel network.     

Current State of Microflow Trifluoromethylation Reactions

The trifluoromethyl group is a powerful structural motif in drugs and polymers; thus, developing trifluoromethylation reactions is an important area of research in organic chemistry. Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made in developing new methods for the trifluoromethylation of organic molecules, ranging from nucleophilic and electrophilic approaches to transition-metal catalysis, photocatalysis, and electrolytic reactions. While these reactions were initially developed in batch systems, more recent microflow versions are highly attractive for industrial applications owing to their scalability, safety, and time efficiency. In this review, we discuss the current state of microflow trifluoromethylation. Approaches for microflow trifluoromethylation based on different trifluoromethylation reagents are described, including continuous flow, flow photochemical, microfluidic electrochemical reactions, and large-scale microflow reactions.     

Synthesis of meta‐Terphenyl‐2,2′′‐diols by Anodic C−C Cross‐Coupling Reactions

The anodic C?C cross‐coupling reaction is a versatile synthetic approach to symmetric and non‐symmetric biphenols and arylated phenols. We herein present a metal‐free electrosynthetic method that provides access to symmetric and non‐symmetric meta‐terphenyl‐2,2′′‐diols in good yields and high selectivity. Symmetric derivatives can be obtained by direct electrolysis in an undivided cell. The synthesis of non‐symmetric meta‐terphenyl‐2,2′′‐diols required two electrochemical steps. The reactions are easy to conduct and scalable. The method also features a broad substrate scope, and a large variety of functional groups are tolerated. The target molecules may serve as [OCO]^3? pincer ligands.     

Selective deprotection of trityl group on carbohydrate by microflow reaction inhibiting migration of acetyl group

The trityl group is an important and useful protecting group for primary hydroxy groups on carbohydrates. However, during deprotection, neighboring acetyl groups can easily migrate to the deprotected hydroxy groups. Hence, deprotection of trityl groups was optimized using a microreactor with regard to flow rate, reagent concentration, reaction time, and substrate concentration. The optimized microflow reaction conditions inhibited migration and could be applied to large-scale reactions and other substrates.     

Effects of natural convection on thermal explosion in a closed vessel

A new way of ascertaining whether or not a reacting mixture will explode uses just three timescales: that for chemical reaction to heat up the fluid containing the reactants and products, the timescale for heat conduction out of the reactor, and the timescale for natural convection in the fluid. This approach is developed for an nth order chemical reaction, A --> B occurring exothermically in a spherical, batch reactor without significant consumption of A. The three timescales are expressed in terms of the physical and chemical parameters of the system. Numerical simulations are performed for laminar natural convection occurring; also, a theoretical relation is developed for turbulent flow. These theoretical and numerical results agree well with previous experimental measurements for the decomposition of azomethane in the gas phase. The new theory developed here is compared with Frank-Kamenetskii's classical criterion for explosion. This new treatment has the advantage of separating the two effects inhibiting explosion, viz. heat removal by thermal conduction and by natural convection. Also, the approach is easily generalised to more complex reactions and flow systems.     

Optical tweezers directed one-bead one-sequence synthesis of oligonucleotides

An optical tweezers directed parallel DNA oligonucleotide synthesis methodology is described in which controlled pore glass (CPG) beads act as solid substrates in a two-stream microfluidic reactor. The reactor contains two parallel sets of physical confinement features that retain beads in the reagent stream for synthetic reaction but allow the beads to be optically trapped and transferred between the reagent and the inert streams for sequence programming. As a demonstration, we synthesized oligonucleotides of target sequence 25-nt, one deletion and one substitution using dimethoxytrityl (DMT) nucleoside phosphoramidite chemistry. In detecting single-nucleotide mismatches, fluorescence in situ hybridization of the bead-conjugated probes showed high specificity and signal-to-noise ratios. These preliminary results suggest further possibilities of creating a novel type of versatile, sensitive and multifunctional reconfigurable one-bead one-compound (OBOC) bead array.     

Ultrasonic agitation in microchannels

This paper describes an acoustic method for inducing rotating vortex flows in microchannels. An ultrasonic crystal is used to create an acoustic standing wave field in the channel and thus induce a Rayleigh flow transverse to the laminar flow in the channel. Mixing in microchannels is strictly diffusion-limited because of the laminar flow, a transverse flow will greatly enhance mixing of the reactants. This is especially evident in chemical microsystems in which the chemical reaction is performed on a solid phase and only one reactant is actually diffusing. The method has been evaluated on two different systems, a mixing channel with two parallel flows and a porous silicon micro enzyme reactor for protein digestion. In both systems a significant increase of the mixing ratio is detected in a narrow band of frequency for the actuating ultrasound.     

Rapid and Mild Lactamization Using Highly Electrophilic Triphosgene in a Microflow Reactor

Lactams are cyclic amides that are indispensable as drugs and as drug candidates. Conventional lactamization includes acid-mediated and coupling-agent-mediated approaches that suffer from narrow substrate scope, much waste, and/or high cost. Inexpensive, less-wasteful approaches mediated by highly electrophilic reagents are attractive, but there is an imminent risk of side reactions. Herein, a methods using highly electrophilic triphosgene in a microflow reactor that accomplishes rapid (0.5–10 s), mild, inexpensive, and less-wasteful lactamization are described. Methods A and B, which use N-methylmorpholine and N-methylimidazole, respectively, were developed. Various lactams and a cyclic peptide containing acid- and/or heat-labile functional groups were synthesized in good to high yields without the need for tedious purification. Undesired reactions were successfully suppressed, and the risk of handling triphosgene was minimized by the use of microflow technology.     

High-throughput parallel reactor system for propylene oxidation catalyst investigation

A high-throughput reactor system was designed for catalyst testing, which includes two important sections: the gas flow splitters and the parallel reactor. Each gas flow splitter could split one gas stream to 64 streams (8 x 8). The current system has two gas splitters that could feed two kinds of gases (from mass flow controllers) to a 64-channel (8 x 8) parallel fixed-bed reactor. The reactor is composed of tube connectors, a reactor tube array, a heating block, a product collector, and a temperature controller. The reactor system could test 64 catalysts simultaneously and give results, which are comparable with a regular single-channel microreactor. For the purpose of verifying the validity of the reactor system, propylene oxidation to prepare acrolein was used as the probing reaction. In order to analyze the reaction products, a high-throughput colorimetric diffusion-reflection imaging method was developed for the analysis of acrolein. By comparing the results from colorimetric diffusion-reflection imaging analysis with that from the traditional gas chromatography spectrometer with thermal conductivity detectors, a colorimetric diffusion-reflection imaging method was confirmed to be reliable and accurate in acrolein analysis.     

Residence time distribution and heat/mass transfer performance of a millimeter scale butterfly-shaped reactor

A millimeter scale butterfly-shaped reactor was proposed based on sizing-up strategy and fabricated via femtosecond laser engraving. An improvement of mixing performance and residence time distribution was realized by means of contraction and expansion of the reaction channel. The liquid holdup was greatly increased through connection of multiple mixing units. Structure optimization of the reactor was carried out by computational fluid dynamics simulation, from which the effect of reactor internals on mixing and the influence of parallel branching structure on heat transfer were discussed. The UV–vis absorption spectroscopy was used to determine the residence time distribution in the reactor, and characteristic parameters such as skewness and dimensionless variance were obtained. Further, a chained stagnant flow model was proposed to precisely describe the trailing phenomenon caused by fluid stagnation and laminar flow in small scale reactors, which enables a better fit for the experimental results of the asymmetric residence time distribution. In addition, the heat transfer performance of the reactor was investigated, and the overall heat transfer coefficient was 110–600 W m^-2 K^-1 in the flow rate range of 10–40 mL/min.     

Benzylic intermolecular carbon-carbon bond formation by selective anodic oxidation of dithioacetals

[reaction: see text]. Novel anodic intermolecular carbon-carbon bond formation has been accomplished by the oxidative carbon-sulfur bond fission of benzylic dithioacetals to give a wide variety of aromatic compounds. The substitution reaction successfully took place by the selective anodic oxidation of a sulfur atom of a dithioacetal. Stepwise double-substitution reactions were also achieved by the regulation of oxidation potential.     

Visible‐Light‐Mediated Selective Arylation of Cysteine in Batch and Flow

A mild visible‐light‐mediated strategy for cysteine arylation is presented. The method relies on the use of eosin Y as a metal‐free photocatalyst and aryldiazonium salts as arylating agents. The reaction can be significantly accelerated in a microflow reactor, whilst allowing the in situ formation of the required diazonium salts. The batch and flow protocol described herein can be applied to obtain a broad series of arylated cysteine derivatives and arylated cysteine‐containing dipeptides. Moreover, the method was applied to the chemoselective arylation of a model peptide in biocompatible reaction conditions (room temperature, phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS) buffer) within a short reaction time.     

Synthesis and analysis of combinatorial libraries performed in an automated micro reactor system

This paper presents the synthesis of combinatorial libraries performed on a single-channel glass micro reactor under hydrodynamic flow control. The experiments were carried out in a non-well based micro chip and consisted of the preparation of libraries of pyrazoles by means of a Knorr reaction of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with hydrazines. The aim of this work is to investigate the capabilities of an automated micro reactor based system to synthesise sequentially multiple analogue reactions. Small slugs of reactants were introduced automatically by an autosampler in a serpentine-etched glass chip. The mobility of the reagents and products was achieved using hydrodynamic driven flow. Reaction slug dilution and UV slug detection took place at the outlet. A sample of the slug was analysed by using an on-line LC-UV-MS system. The degree of conversion was quantified using the UV signal and comparing with standards of starting materials and final products. After the LC-UV-MS analysis, the automated system proceeds to inject the slugs to carry out the next reaction programmed. The results suggest that the micro reactor system is capable of repeating the process of injection, mixing and reaction in an automated manner as many times as required.