06/2018

This collaborative report from the Jones and Davies Groups introduces a novel flow reactor systems to harness the potential of carbene C–H insertion transformations in flow.

This scalable flow reactor is demonstrated for enantioselective and regioselective rhodium carbene reactions (cyclopropanation and C−H functionalization) by developing cascade reaction methods employing a microfluidic flow reactor system containing immobilized dirhodium catalysts in conjunction with the flow synthesis of diazo compounds. This allows the utilization of the energetic diazo compounds in a safe manner and the recycling of the dirhodium catalysts multiple times.

This approach is amenable to application in a bulk‐scale synthesis employing asymmetric C−H functionalization by stacking multiple fibers in one reactor module. The products from this sequential flow–flow reactor are compared with a conventional batch reactor or flow–batch reactor in terms of yield, regioselectivity, and enantioselectivity.

Author: Chunjae Yoo