Design and 3D printing of a stainless steel reactor for continuous difluoromethylations using fluoroform

Abstract

Herein we present a continuous flow reactor printed from stainless steel by selective laser melting. The reactor was specifically designed for a fast difluoromethylation reaction with nBuLi as base and fluoroform as atom-economic and inexpensive reagent. The reactor features four inlets to allow introduction of substrate, nBuLi, fluoroform, and a final quench solution. The reaction was completed within less than 2 min at −65 °C. The utilization of stainless steel as reactor material is critical to accomplish the heat transfer as well as the chemical and mechanical resistance that is required for this transformation.