A safe production method for acetone cyanohydrin

HCN on Tap: On-Demand Continuous Production of Anhydrous HCN for Organic Synthesis

A continuous process for the on-demand generation, separation, and reaction of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) using membrane separation technology was developed. The inner tube of the reactor is manufactured from a gas-permeable, hydrophobic fluoropolymer (Teflon AF-2400) membrane. HCN is formed from aqueous reagents within the inner tube and then diffuses through the membrane into an outer tubing containing organic solvent. This technique enabled the safe handling of HCN for three different organic transformations without the need for distillation.

Safe, Selective, and High-Yielding Synthesis of Acryloyl Chloride in a Continuous-Flow System

Acid chlorides are an important class of compounds and their high reactivity and instability has prompted us to develop a straightforward procedure for their synthesis with on-demand and on-site synthesis possibilities. The focus of this report is acryloyl chloride, mainly important for the acrylate and polymer industry. A continuous-flow methodology was developed for the fast and selective synthesis of the otherwise highly unstable acryloyl chloride. Three routes were investigated in a microreactor setup and all three can potentially be used for its production. The methodology was further expanded to the synthesis of other unstable acid chlorides by both the thionyl chloride and the oxalyl chloride mediated processes. The most sustainable method was the oxalyl chloride mediated procedure under solvent-free conditions, in which near-equimolar amounts of carboxylic acid and oxalyl chloride were used in the presence of catalytic amounts of DMF at room temperature. Within 1 to 3 min, nearly full conversions into the acid chlorides were achieved.

Taming hazardous chemistry by continuous flow technology

Over the last two decades, flow technologies have become increasingly popular in the field of organic chemistry, offering solutions for engineering and/or chemical problems. Flow reactors enhance the mass and heat transfer, resulting in rapid reaction mixing, and enable a precise control over the reaction parameters, increasing the overall process selectivity, efficiency and safety. These features allow chemists to tackle unexploited challenges in their work, with the ultimate objective making chemistry more accessible for laboratory and industrial applications, avoiding the need to store and handle toxic, reactive and explosive reagents. This review covers some of the latest and most relevant developments in the field of continuous flow chemistry with the focus on hazardous reactions.

Continuous-flow technology—a tool for the safe manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients

In the past few years, continuous-flow reactors with channel dimensions in the micro- or millimeter region have found widespread application in organic synthesis. The characteristic properties of these reactors are their exceptionally fast heat and mass transfer. In microstructured devices of this type, virtually instantaneous mixing can be achieved for all but the fastest reactions. Similarly, the accumulation of heat, formation of hot spots, and dangers of thermal runaways can be prevented. As a result of the small reactor volumes, the overall safety of the process is significantly improved, even when harsh reaction conditions are used. Thus, microreactor technology offers a unique way to perform ultrafast, exothermic reactions, and allows the execution of reactions which proceed via highly unstable or even explosive intermediates. This Review discusses recent literature examples of continuous-flow organic synthesis where hazardous reactions or extreme process windows have been employed, with a focus on applications of relevance to the preparation of pharmaceuticals.

A safe and efficient flow oxidation of aldehydes with O2

A safe, straightforward, and atom economic approach for the oxidation of aliphatic aldehydes to the corresponding carboxylic acids within a continuous flow reactor is reported. Typically, the reaction is performed at room temperature using 5 bar of oxygen in PFA tubing and does require neither additional catalysts nor radical initiators except for those already contained in the starting materials. In some cases, a catalytic amount of a Mn(II) catalyst is added. Such a flow process may prove to be a valuable alternative to traditionally catalyzed aerobic processes.

Industrial lab-on-a-chip: design, applications and scale-up for drug discovery and delivery

Microfluidics is an emerging and promising interdisciplinary technology which offers powerful platforms for precise production of novel functional materials (e.g., emulsion droplets, microcapsules, and nanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles- and drug molecules) as well as high-throughput analyses (e.g., bioassays, detection, and diagnostics). In particular, multiphase microfluidics is a rapidly growing technology and has beneficial applications in various fields including biomedicals, chemicals, and foods. In this review, we first describe the fundamentals and latest developments in multiphase microfluidics for producing biocompatible materials that are precisely controlled in size, shape, internal morphology and composition. We next describe some microfluidic applications that synthesize drug molecules, handle biological substances and biological units, and imitate biological organs. We also highlight and discuss design, applications and scale up of droplet- and flow-based microfluidic devices used for drug discovery and delivery.

Kinetics and mechanism of the racemic addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to aldehydes catalysed by Lewis bases

The mechanism by which four Lewis bases, triethylamine, tetrabutylammonium thiocyanate, tetrabutylammonium azide and tetrabutylammonium cyanide, catalyse the addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to aldehydes is studied by a combination of kinetic and spectroscopic methods. The reactions can exhibit first or second order kinetics corresponding to three different reaction mechanisms. Spectroscopic evidence for the formation of hypervalent silicon species is obtained for reaction between all of the tetrabutylammonium salts and trimethylsilyl cyanide. The reactions are accelerated by the presence of water in the reaction mixture, an effect which is due to a change in the reaction mechanism from Lewis to Brønsted base catalysis. Tetrabutylammonium thiocyanate is shown to be an excellent catalyst for the synthesis of cyanohydrin trimethylsilyl ethers on a preparative scale.