Fundamental and Development of Microreaction Technology for the Application of Fine Chemicals Synthesis

Abstract

The fine chemical process has many environmental and safety problems related to the unavoidable use of various organic reactions which are highly involved with exothermic reactions, explosive intermediates, corrosive reagents, toxic or reactive gases, flammable and pyrophoric compounds, and extreme conditions. Limited by the traditional batch process, the efficiency of these reactions should be manually lowered to keep the reaction from going out of control. Benefiting from its rapid transfer of reaction heat, efficient micro-mixing of ingredients, and minimal hold-up of hazardous reagents, continuous-flow microreaction synthesis has emerged as a new technology for producing fine chemicals efficiently and safely in the last two decades. Here, we will introduce some recent progress on the fundamentals and developments of efficient, green, and safe processes for fine chemical synthesis using microreaction technology mainly by our group, including rearrangement reaction, cycloaddition reaction, diazotization reaction, coupling reaction, alkylation reaction, and sulfonation reaction. Based on our research progress, the development of microreaction technology in fine chemical synthesis was discussed here, including applying online analysis and intelligent algorithms to improve the efficiency of the development of microreaction systems from lab scale to commercial production, extending the application of microreaction technology to solid or particle treatment, studying the behaviors of heterogeneous reactions, revealing principles for scaling up heterogeneous reactions in specialized microreactors, and decision toolbox considering both the characteristic of the microreaction system and the overall goal of the industry.