Developing Continuous-Flow Microreactors as Tools for Synthetic Chemists

Microfluidic devices are emerging as true alternatives to traditional batch processes, as evidenced by recent applications in important synthetic transformations. Besides biologically important oligomers such as beta-peptides and oligosaccharides, pharmaceutically active substances have been the target of the most recent investigations. Furthermore, synthetic processes posing challenges to process chemists such as highly exothermic or explosive reactions and reactions that are difficult to control on large scale (such as radical transformations) have been of particular interest. This account briefly introduces the concepts of continuous-flow microreactors, and reviews our investigations on the application of microfluidic devices in synthetic transformations such as glycosylations, amide bond formations mediated by trimethylaluminum, radical-based transformations, and deoxyfluorinations.