![]() The purpose of this perspective is not to give a comprehensive overview of continuous-flow photochemistry but rather to provide the reader with some of the most recent and exciting areas of research and where these findings could lead to in the future. ![]() Scalability can be achieved by either using longer operation times or by numbering-up. Due to the short length scale, an optimal energy distribution is observed leading to spectacular reaction time reductions, lowered catalyst loadings, and less byproducts. Typically, microscale capillaries are used to carry out the photochemical reaction in a continuous fashion. It is this specific aspect that can be targeted by continuous-flow reactors. This means that the outskirts of the reactor observe a higher energy density than the center, resulting in unrealistically long reaction times on larger scale. The culprit here is the absorption of the photons as dictated by the Bouguer–Lambert–Beer law. ![]() When a photochemical reaction is performed on a small scale, the conditions do not simply translate to a larger scale. However, along with the renewed interest in photochemistry, the old technical problems related to scalability of such processes resurged. Owing to the mild reaction conditions (room temperature, visible light, non-hazardous reagents), this activation mode has the potential to revolutionize the way pharmaceuticals are made. This field exploits the increased redox activity of the photo-excited photocatalysts, making them act both as a stronger oxidant and reductant than their corresponding ground state. Photoredox catalysis has enabled nontraditional reaction pathways allowing for previously deemed elusive bond constructions. The current enthusiasm for photochemistry can be partially attributed to the booming interest of the synthetic community in photoredox catalysis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |