Utilising high throughput technologies for the determination of the reaction network of the l-proline catalysed aldol reaction

Abstract

The objective of this work is to facilitate the determination of a reliable reaction network for the l-proline catalysed aldol reaction using high throughput technologies (HTT). The availability of reliable reaction network is fundamental to predictive kinetic modelling including scale up, replacing a batch process with a continuous one, optimisation, thermal safety, process simulation, etc. The extent to which HTT experiments may be used to provide the necessary quantitative understanding of both physical and chemical phenomena of the system studied is assessed through a four stage development programme. For this particular system it is shown that, in conjunction with appropriate experimental designs, meaningful data streams for mechanistic/kinetic studies can be generated. The experimental data allowed a reaction network for the l-proline catalysed aldol reaction to be proposed and verified through a kinetic modelling exercise.