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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

A Scalable Balz-Schiemann Reaction Protocol in a Continuous Flow Reactor
Published on: February 10, 2023
Rapid and efficient copper-catalyzed Finkelstein reaction of (hetero)aromatics under continuous-flow conditions
Mao Chen1, Saki Ichikawa, Stephen L Buchwald
1Department of Chemistry, Room 18-490, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
Abstract:
A general, rapid, and efficient method for the copper-catalyzed Finkelstein reaction of (hetero)aromatics has been developed using continuous flow to generate a variety of aryl iodides. The described method can tolerate a broad spectrum of functional groups, including N-H and O-H groups. Additionally, in lieu of isolation, the aryl iodide solutions were used in two distinct multistep continuous-flow processes (amidation and Mg-I exchange/nucleophilic addition) to demonstrate the flexibility of this method.
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