Editorial pubs.acs.org/OPRD
Special Feature: Continuous Processing, Microreactors and Flow Chemistry
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n this world of ever-shorter drug discovery and development times, it is critical to achieve consistent results, but faster and with greater confidence. Flow chemistry/continuous processing has therefore become an essential tool for the organic chemist. The popularity of OPR&D’s previous special issues on flow chemistry (Nov 2014, May 2012) and the continuing developments in this important field of chemical technology are good reasons to bring readers more successful examples from this area. This issue welcomes back many authors who have contributed to OPR&D and in particular to the flow chemistry special issues: Stefan Abele, Ian Baxendale, Donna Blackmond, Katja Buehler, Takashi Fukuyama, Dmitri Gelman, Krist Gernaey, Jorma Hassfeld, Volker Hessel, C. Oliver Kappe, Alexei Lapkin, Mats Larhed, Steven Ley, Rebecca Meadows, Leslaw Mleczko, Allan Myerson, Michael Organ, Mario Pagliaro, Floris Rutjes, Paul Sharratt, Katsuya Tagami, Luigi Vaccaro, Thomas Wirth, and Sze Wing Wong. We thank you all for your valuable contributions to this issue! Of particular note this time are examples related to photochemistry and how photochemistry relates to continuous processing. Photochemistry has traditionally been run in batch mode with the disadvantages of very short penetration of light into the reactor, poor distribution of light, and the requirement of high dilution to avoid recombination of short-lived fragments. Two of this issue’s articles demonstrate how a flow process can overcome these problems. Another example by Paul Sharratt shows how batch chemistry can be adapted to flow processing, resulting in improvements in the yield, reaction time, safety, and ease of process, once the flow train has been established. Together they render photochemistry from a laboratory curiosity to a viable multikilogram process. In many cases, flow chemistry requires additional work up front in order to achieve better results later on. The experience of others reporting in this special issue can help to provide insight on efforts versus rewards in your own work. Read about it here first in order to obtain your own design. Then write them up for OPR&D. I look forward to reading about them in our next special issue on flow chemistry.
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Jaan A. Pesti, OPR&D EAB Member
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Special Issue: Continuous Processing, Microreactors and Flow Chemistry Published: February 19, 2016 © 2016 American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.6b00031 Org. Process Res. Dev. 2016, 20, 326−326
