A novel application is described for utilizing hydrogel dots as organocatalyst carriers inside microfluidic reactors. Tertiary amines were covalently immobilized in the hydrogel dots. Due to the diffusion of reactants within the swollen hydrogel dots, the accessible amount of catalysts inside a microfluidic reactor chamber can be increased compared to the accessible amount of surface‐bound catalysts. To perform fast Knoevenagel reactions, important flow parameters had to be validated to optimize the reactor performance while keeping the dimensions of the reactor chamber constant; e.g. the height of the hydrogel dots had to be adjusted to the invariable dimensions of the reactor chamber, or an adjustment of organocatalysts in the hydrogel dots had to be validated to achieve the highest conversion rate during a certain residence time. To characterize the conversion, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and UV/Vis‐spectroscopy were utilized as an offline and online method, respectively. With suitable hydrogel dots, the influence of different flow parameters (e.g., operating flow rate and reactant concentration) on the selected model reactions in the microfluidic reactor was investigated. Finally, a variety of reactants were screened with the optimized flow parameters. With these results, the turnover frequency was determined for the Knoevenagel reactions in a microfluidic reactor, and the results were compared with published data that were determined by other synthetic approaches.
In the search for a new synthetic pathway for azoxybenzenes with different substitution patterns, an approach using a microfluidic reactor with gel‐bound proline organocatalysts under continuous flow is presented. Herein the formation of differently substituted azoxybezenes by reductive dimerization of nitrosobenzenes within minutes at mild conditions in good to almost quantitative yields is described. The conversion within the microfluidic reactor is analyzed and used for optimizing and validating different parameters. The effects of the different functionalities on conversion, yield, and reaction times are analyzed in detail by NMR. The applicability of this reductive dimerization is demonstrated for a wide range of differently substituted nitrosobenzenes. The effects of these different functionalities on the structure of the obtained azoxyarenes are analyzed in detail by NMR and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. Based on these results, the turnover number and the turnover frequency were determined.
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