VALIDATION OF CONTINUOUS FLOW METAL PLATE REACTORS IN THE TERPENE KETONE SYNTHESIS BY ALCOHOL OXIDATION

Abstract

The present study elucidates the oxidation of alcohols to terpene ketones using dichloro(p-cymene) ruthenium (II) dimer catalyst by continuous flow process using a metal plate reactor. The synthesized products were separated and validated using GC, GCMS, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR techniques. The reaction process exhibited product yield in the range of 80-95% on a scale of 1-80 grams. Optimization studies were conducted to calibrate the reaction conditions to improve the product yield. The scope of the reaction was explored using aromatic, cyclic, and aliphatic alcohols under optimized conditions, which resulted in high yields of terpene ketones. A reaction mechanism is proposed for the oxidation of alcohols by a continuous flow process. The significant advantages of the current protocol include synthesis at mild conditions, safer handling of reagents, flexibility to tune reaction conditions, and straightforward scale-up in the range of 1- 80 grams with high efficiency and reproducibility.