Kinetics Studies on a Multicomponent Knoevenagel-Michael Domino Reaction by an Automated Flow Reactor

The optimization of complex chemical reaction systems is often a troublesome and time-consuming process. The application of modern technologies, including automated reactors and analytics, opens the avenue for generating large data sets on chemical reaction processes in a short period of time. In this work, an automated flow reactor is used to present detailed kinetics and mechanistic studies about an amine-catalyzed Knoevenagel-Michael domino reaction to yield tetrahydrochromene derivatives. High-performance monoliths as catalyst supports and online coupled HPLC analysis allow for time-efficient data generation. We show that the two-step multicomponent domino reaction does not follow the kinetics of consecutive reaction steps proceeding independently from each other. Instead, the starting materials of both individual reactions compete for the active sites on the heterogeneous catalyst, which lowers the rate constants of both steps. This knowledge was used to implement a more efficient experimental setup which increased the turnover numbers of the catalyst, without adjusting common reaction parameters like temperature, reaction time, and concentrations.