Flow synthesis of oxadiazoles coupled with sequential in-line extraction and chromatography

An efficient continuous flow process is reported for the synthesis of various 1,3,4-oxadiazoles via an iodine-mediated oxidative cyclisation approach. This entails the use of a heated packed-bed reactor filled with solid K₂CO₃ as a base. Using DMSO as solvent, this flow method generates the target heterocycles within short residence times of 10 minutes and in yields up to 93%. Scale-up of this flow process was achieved (34 mmol/h) and featured an integrated quenching and extraction step. Lastly, the use of an automated in-line chromatography system was exploited to realise a powerful flow platform for the generation of the heterocyclic targets.