Themed collection Catalysis in Flow Chemistry

Editorial for the themed issue on flow chemistry in catalysis.

After reviewing selected recent applications from diverse laboratories, we show how mesoporous organosilica-entrapped catalysts of the SiliaCat series have been successfully used for clean manufacturing of APIs in a number of different reactions carried out under laminar flow in microreactors.

The Ru(porphyrin)CO-catalyzed addition of aryl azides to styrenes to afford N-aryl aziridines was successfully performed for the first time in mesoreactors under continuous flow conditions.

A new, cost-effective polystyrene-supported squaramide organocatalyst has been shown to mediate the highly enantioselective formation of pyranonaphthoquinones in flow through a sequential two-step process.

A macromolecular Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ based dendrimer can be used as an efficient photoredox catalyst, retrieved from the reaction mixture by organic solvent nanofiltration and reutilized for further reactions.

Integration of the preparation of arylboronic esters and Suzuki–Miyaura coupling using monolithic Pd catalyst was successfully achieved.

Deactivation of Au–Pd/TiO₂ catalyst during oxidation in flow is attributed to Pd leaching and a complex effect of oxygen.

The continuous flow hydroconversion of furfural to a range of furanic derivatives was carried out using a range of metal-containing heterogeneous catalysts in order to provide insights into the reaction pathways for the hydrogenation of furfural.

Several value-added products can be produced from glycerol and among these products glycerol carbonate (GC) has received much attention in recent years because of its physical properties and wide application in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries.

The synthesis of a triethoxysilyl functionalised Pd-PEPPSI–IPr complex prepared via azide–alkyne cycloaddition is described.

Mukaiyama reaction was performed G/L continuous-flow microreactor. In less than 5 minutes at room temperature, cyclooctene was efficiently transformed to the corresponding epoxide using O₂ as oxidant and aldehyde as co-reductant.

By using supported Cu(II) catalysts for the regioselective synthesis of 1,4-disubstituted pyrazoles, we significantly reduced the Cu loading to 30 mol% and the alkyne required. Also, continuous flow allowed a dramatic reduction of reaction times going from 16 h to residence times of 5–15 min, being able to easily scale up this methodology.

The methoxycarbonylation of cyclohexene with carbon dioxide over a ruthenium catalyst was realized in a micro flow system under supercritical conditions.