A Small-Footprint, High-Capacity Flow Reactor for UV Photochemical Synthesis on the Kilogram Scale

Abstract

The development of a highly compact and powerful reactor for synthetic organic photochemistry is described enabling a 10-fold reduction in reaction times, with up to 30% more power efficiency than previous fluorinated ethylene propylene tube reactors. Two reactions gave over 1 kg of product in 24 h. Two other reactions had productivities of 4 and 8 kg in 24 h. The reactor consists of a succession of quartz tubes connected together in series and arranged axially around a variable power mercury lamp. This compact and relatively simple device can be safely operated in a standard fumehood.