Developing Continuous Electroorganic Catalysis - It's Got Potential

电与化学反应的结合由来已久。利用电流中的单个电子来引发化学反应的能力是一个令人兴奋的概念，特别是从可持续性的角度来看。电子是最清洁的化学试剂之一(也就是说，使用电子不会产生废物)，光子是一种互补的替代品。因此，令人惊讶的是，有机化学这一涉及为社会创造分子的化学分支，如药品、作物保护剂、染料、颜料、香料、香料和聚合物，在发现和制造阶段并不经常使用这种电化学方法。缺乏采用的关键原因之一是，施加的电流或电子的能量通常没有适当地调节到反应系统。这可能会导致不希望发生的反应和不纯的反应曲线。然而，最近在该领域取得了一些开创性的进展，这可能会使这种电子有机化学的应用范围扩大。这些发展是双重的，涉及化学和反应器设计1)关于化学，现在有几个例子，可以通过适当选择电解液和仔细规划化学反应物来触发复杂的反应过程。此外，最近已经证明，催化系统可以通过电子的输入来维持，这样的过程可以产生复杂而有趣的分子，这类分子可能会出现在“社会分子”中。2)在反应器设计方面，连续流动化学的发展和进步(管道和管路中的化学，而不是烧杯和烧瓶中的化学)允许降低电流，从而允许在反应过程中进行更灵敏的“外科切割”，从而减少不希望发生的反应和产生不纯反应轮廓的倾向。这一提议似乎适用于一种被称为有机催化的催化领域，即使用少量的有机分子来加快反应速度(这与基于贵金属的体系形成对比)。在这里，电化学方法将有助于维持和维持催化循环。值得注意的是，在这种类型的所有其他有机催化过程中，需要等量的加成化学品来保持催化活性。这种化学物质纯粹是牺牲性的，因此是极其浪费的。来自英国的一项初步成功已经证明，使用电化学方法可以持续进行有机催化反应。这项提议旨在极大地多样化这一观察结果的应用。有机催化、电化学和连续流动方法的结合将有助于扩大我们用于提供这些工业有用反应的过程的可持续性。

The combination of electricity with chemical reactions has a long history. The ability to use a single electron from an electric current in order to trigger a chemical reaction is an exciting concept, especially from the perspective of sustainability. Electrons are one of the cleanest possible chemical reagents (i.e. there is no waste generated from their use) with photons of light representing a complementary alternative. It is surprising therefore that organic chemistry, the branch of chemistry involved with creating molecules for society, such as pharmaceuticals, crop-protection agents, dyes, pigments, flavours, fragrances and polymers does not often use such electro-chemical methods at both the discovery and manufacture stages. One of the key reasons for this lack of adoption is that often the applied current, or the energy of the electron, is not properly tuned to the reaction system. This can lead to undesired reactions and impure reaction profiles. However, there have been some recent pioneering developments in the field that may permit broadening of the application of this electro-organic chemistry. The developments are two-fold and concern the chemistry and the reactor design.1) With regards to the chemistry, several examples now exist where complex reaction processes can be triggered by appropriate choice of electrolyte and careful planning of the chemical reactants. Furthermore, it has recently been proven that catalytic systems can be sustained by the input of electrons, with such processes giving rise to complex and interesting molecules of the kind that could feature in 'molecules for society'.2) With regards to the reactor design, the development and advancement of continuous flow chemistry (chemistry in pipes and tubing circuits rather than beakers and flasks) has permitted the lowering of the electric current and thus allows more sensitive 'surgical incisions' to be made in the reaction process, thus reducing the undesired reactions and propensity to yield impure reaction profiles. This proposal looks to work in an area of catalysis known as organo-catalysis, where a small amount of an organic molecule is used to accelerate the rate of reactions (this is in contrast to a precious metal-based system). Here the electro-chemistry approach will help to sustain and maintain the catalytic cycle. Notably, in all other organo-catalytic processes of this type an equal amount of an addition chemical is needed to maintain the catalytic activity. This chemical is purely sacrificial in nature and is thus extremely wasteful. A preliminary hit from the UK has already demonstrated that organo-catalytic reactions can be sustained using electro-chemical methods. This proposal aims to greatly diversify the application of this observation. The combination of an organo-catalytic, electro-chemical and continuous flow approach will serve to amplify the sustainability of the processes that we use to deliver these industrially useful reactions.