Photoredox catalysis has emerged as a valuable tool for synthetic organic chemists. Many important classical transformations are possible using visible-light photocatalysis giving chemists new choices when designing synthetic strategies. Photocatalytic reactions often proceed with high selectivity in significantly milder conditions than traditional cross -coupling reactions; however, difficulty with reaction setup can be a hindrance for chemists looking to utilize photochemistry for practical applications. When performing multiple photoredox reactions for optimization or parallel synthesis it can be difficult to achieve consistent light exposure to all samples or accurately control the temperature. This can lead to lower than expected yields and poor reproducibility. Also, few literature reports of photochemical reactions at lower or higher than room temperature exist, presumably due to the difficulty in controlling the experiments. These technical issues leave a valuable unexplored area of research for photocatalysis. To address these issues we have designed a convenient multi-format reactor with control of temperature settings (-20-120 C) enabling reaction screening in both batch and flow. Our new device design enables probing multiple reaction parameters conveniently in a variety of vials formats (200 µl to 20 ml) or using a flow cell. Examples of reaction optimization with screening of photocatalyst, base, solvent, light and temperature will be presented. The convenience of a multi-format device for manipulating photoredox catalysis can and will enable new reaction discovery by giving more control over reaction parameters to the synthetic chemist. Our devices have found use in both industrial and academic laboratories for medicinal chemistry, agrochemical and biochemical applications.

Development of a photoreactor enabling screening of photoredox catalysis with temperature and light control: Experiments in batch and flow

256th National Meeting (2018)

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