8 Gaseous Reagents in Continuous-Flow Synthesis

Abstract

AbstractAlthough reactive gases facilitate a wide range of important synthetic transformations, their use is often not straightforward. Significant safety issues arise from the highly mobile nature of gases, both in terms of the rapidity with which they can spread throughout the laboratory and also because of the frequent need to use pressurized containment. Additionally, as surface-area-to-volume ratios tend to decrease as reactor dimensions are increased, gas–liquid transformations carried out in batch mode are often accompanied by scale-dependent performance. This chapter highlights some of the benefits that continuous flow chemistry can bring to gas–liquid synthetic chemistry. A number of flow chemical reactor systems are described, including microfluidic devices which enhance the mechanical mixing of gas and liquid phases, as well as systems based on the use of gas-permeable membrane materials.