Flash Organometallic Catalysis Uncovered by Continuous Microfluidic Devices

Abstract

AbstractThe flash organometallic catalysis is a new concept that refers to the study of fast and controlled organometallic catalytic reactions by using microfluidic devices. Flash reactions’ kinetics (ms‐s scale) is often ignored due to the lack of proper research tool in organometallic chemistry. The development of microfluidic systems offers the opportunity to discover under‐studied mechanisms and new reactions. In this concept, the basic theory of kinetic measurement in a microreactor is briefly reviewed and then two examples on studying flash organometallic catalytic transformation are introduced. One example is the discovery of a highly active palladium catalytic species for Suzuki Coupling and the other example is the study of a neglected isomerization catalytic cycle with a time scale of seconds before isomerization‐hydroformylation by customized microfluidic devices. The last part is summary and prospect of this new area. Customizing a microfluidic device with good engineering design for a target reaction supports flash reactions’ kinetic experimentation and could become a general strategy in chemistry lab.