CD Laboratory for Flow Chemistry

Shorter reaction times, fewer waste products, easy scalability for industrial production: flow reactors are a promising method of producing chemical substances. Applications under high pressure and high temperatures are the focus of research here.

In synthesis chemistry, a complicated new compound is produced from simple compounds. It is essential to optimise the reaction conditions such as temperature, pressure, mixing ratio, catalysts, pH value and solvent.

In recent decades, synthetic chemistry has primarily relied on so-called batch processes, in which the individual processes are carried out in strict succession: The reaction mixture remains in a reactor until the reaction has been completed and the next production step can only be carried out after appropriate processing.

This laboratory, on the other hand, is conducting research into so-called flow-through or microreactors: the reaction components are pumped through a reaction chamber in the micro- or millilitre range. In these small reactors, the surface area is large in relation to the volume, so heat transfer is very efficient and the reaction temperatures can be changed quickly and easily. As a result, extreme temperature and pressure conditions can be generated and the chemical reactions take place much more quickly and with fewer side reactions - which means that the production of hazardous waste materials can be avoided. Furthermore, the components in the microreactors are mixed very effectively, the chemicals can be more easily isolated from air and moisture and hazardous compounds can be produced more safely.

The easy scalability of the technology is also very interesting for industrial applications: if you want to produce larger quantities, you don't need large reactors in which the chemical reactions can take place in a completely different way than in the experimental reactors. Instead, the reaction components are simply pumped through the flow reactor over a longer period of time and/or several reactors are used in parallel.

Despite all the potential advantages, flow technology is still far from established and many questions remain unanswered. This laboratory focusses on applications of flow chemistry under high temperatures and high pressure, especially for rather slow reactions. Specifically, the focus is on synthetic organic conversions of interest to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries. Other topics include biocatalytic and photochemical processes and the production of nanoparticles.