Preparation of Metal-Immobilized Methacrylate-Based Monolithic Columns for Flow-Through Cross-Coupling Reactions

With the aim of developing efficient flow-through microreactors for high-throughput organic synthesis, in this work, microreactors were fabricated by chemically immobilizing palladium-, nickel-, iron-, and copper-based catalysts onto ligand-modified poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) [poly(GMA-co-EDMA)] monoliths, which were prepared inside a silicosteel tubing (10 cm long with an inner diameter of 1.0 mm) and modified with several ligands including 5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline (APHEN), iminodiacetic acid (IDA), and iminodimethyl phosphonic acid (IDP). The performance of the resulting microreactors in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions was evaluated, finding that the poly(GMA-co-EDMA) monolith chemically modified with 5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline as a binding site for the palladium catalyst provided an excellent flow-through performance, enabling highly efficient and rapid reactions with high product yields. Moreover, this monolithic microreactor maintained its good activity and efficiency during prolonged use.