Micro-electro-flow reactor (μ-EFR) system for ultra-fast arene synthesis and manufacture of daclatasvir

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed daclatasvir (DCV), symmetrical arene, as one of the essential medicines for human health. DCV manufacturing is usually carried out in a non-continuous or “batch” approach over multiple locations and is severely limited by long production times (3–10 days), resulting in non-affordability (highly expensive) and disruption of the potential chain supply. Here, we report the total process system including the development of a novel electro-flow reactor containing patterned electrodeposited Ni or Pt nanoparticles over a copper electrode for a C–C coupling reaction in a co-reductant/oxidant-free, ultra-fast process for symmetrical substituted/unsubstituted biphenyl synthesis. This method was further extended to a new generation commercial batch synthetic route for continuous flow ultra-fast daclatasvir synthesis in 33.2 min. We envisage that this micro-electro-flow reactor (μ-EFR) system platform will substantially enable advances in continuous-μ-flow fine chemical manufacturing, multistep reaction sequences, reaction devising equipment, and real-time extraction.