Flow chemistry is an excellent addition to the chemist’s toolbox that adds many benefits in the control of chemical synthesis but is still a relatively new technique for some. While we use the same transformations to build our compounds, the technique requires a small change in the way we carry out our chemistry. This short presentation will help to describe the subtle difference between flow and traditional batch techniques by explaining the first principles of residence time, temperature, mixing, and pressure control. We also outline the key benefits that using this technique can add such as increased reaction rates, reduced hazards, and ease of scaling up. Read our flow chemistry basics application page here.

We’ll outline the key benefits of using flow chemistry techniques such as increased reaction rates, reduced hazards, and ease of scaling up. Read our flow chemistry basics application page here.

Flow chemistry is a powerful synthetic addition to add to the chemist’s toolbox and should be considered as complementary to batch techniques to enable the greatest range of synthetic applications. However, flow chemistry techniques will be new to most chemists – and a little scary – especially when considering how to convert a batch reaction to a continuous flow one. In this session, we will run through the thought process of identifying the right method for your application and consider how we begin to convert our chemistry, and we’ll include some examples. Read our batch vs. flow chemistry application page for more information.

The generation of targeted library arrays to create diverse sets of compounds for research purposes has been an important tool for many years. The use of flow chemistry techniques now allows chemists to harness its many benefits and design compounds with increased chemical space and complexity under fully automated conditions. 10s-100s of compounds can be synthesized and purified a day with tailored reaction conditions for each synthesis. Read the library synthesis in flow application page here.

Many chemical reactions use hazardous reagents or create highly reactive intermediate products. This can prove restrictive when we come to scale these reactions. Applying flow chemistry techniques can open these restrictive chemistries that simply may not be possible using traditional techniques. The capacity for greater heat transfer, control of reaction conditions, and a reduced inventory of reactants contributes to reducing potential hazards. This session provides some examples of how flow chemistry can create hazardous reagents and energetic reactive intermediates in-situ to eliminate the need for large feedstocks and isolation of these reactants.

In vivo, a drug molecule undergoes its first chemical transformation within the liver via CYP450-catalyzed oxidation. The chemical outcome of this drug oxidation to its metabolite is key information to any drug development process. Electrochemistry can be used to simulate CYP450 oxidation, yet it is often confined to the analytical scale, hampering product isolation and full characterization. We can combine flow techniques and electrochemistry to replicate these oxidations at the preparative scale. This session introduces continuous flow electrochemistry techniques and demonstrates that such metabolites can be synthesized by flow electrolysis at the 10 to 100 mg scale. Discover the electrochemistry in flow application page and the Asia FLUX electrochemistry system.