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Analyzing the Photo-oxidation of 2-propanol at Indoor Air Level Concentrations Using Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry
Published on: June 14, 2018
Continuous Flow Approach for Benzylic Photo-oxidations Using Compressed Air
Ruairi Bannon1, Gary Morrison2, Megan Smyth2
1School of Chemistry, Science Centre South, University College Dublin, Dublin D04 N2E5, Ireland.
Abstract:
A continuous flow approach for the aerobic photo-oxidation of benzylic substrates to ketone and aldehyde products is presented. The resulting process exploits UV-A LEDs (375 nm) in combination with a Corning AFR reactor that ensures effective gas-liquid mixing and leads to short residence times of 1 min. A variety of benzylic substrates are converted to their corresponding carbonyl products, and scalability is demonstrated to produce multigram quantities of products within a few hours. Overall, this continuous flow approach offers several improvements over alternative oxidation methods due to the combined use of air as an oxidant and SAS (sodium anthraquinone-2 sulfonate) as a water-soluble photocatalyst. The use of greener and safer conditions together with process intensification principles renders this flow approach attractive for further industrial applications.
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