The When, Why, and How of Flow Chemistry

Flow chemistry has the potential to revolutionize the synthesis of organic molecules. Flow systems can reduce reaction times, increase efficiency, and obviate problems often encountered in scaling up. In addition to these important practical advantages, flow chemistry expands the “toolbox” of organic reactions available to scientists engaged in the synthesis of molecules – from small-scale experiments to large-scale production. These benefits are a direct result of several features of flow synthesis that batch synthesis typically cannot achieve, for example, the ability to control fluid flow precisely, the access to temperature and pressure regimes not usually considered to be practical, and the enhanced safety characteristics of flow chemical systems. In this lecture we will discuss some of our investigations in this area in the form of case studies, wherein a specific target or family of organic molecules has served as an inspiration for the development of new methods of organic synthesis in flow. Flow chemistry represents an important conceptual advance in the design and execution of chemical syntheses.


















Timothy Jamison (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)