My Twenty Years in Microwave Chemistry: From Kitchen Ovens to Microwaves that aren't Microwaves

Abstract

This Personal Account describes the author's involvement in the field of microwave-assisted organic synthesis (MAOS) from the late 1990's starting out with kitchen microwave ovens right through to the development of a reactor in 2016 that - although not using microwave technology - in many ways mimics the performance of a modern laboratory microwave. The reader is taken along a journey that has spanned two decades of intense research on various aspects of microwave chemistry, and, at the same time, was intimately linked to key innovations regarding equipment design and development. A "behind the scenes" approach is taken in this article to share - from a very personal point of view - how specific projects and research ideas were conceived and developed in my research group, and how in general the field of microwave chemistry has progressed in the last two decades.

Microwave Assisted Synthesis of 4-Phenylquinazolin-2(1H)-one Derivatives that Inhibit Vasopressor Tonus in Rat Thoracic Aorta

“…Most of the time heating using microwave radiation allows one to drastically reduce times and increase the yield of reactions. Microwave radiation provides more efficient heating since it is generated internally by direct absorption of microwave radiation by polar molecules present in the reaction mixture (for example solvents, reagents and catalysts) [22,23]. In order to improve the existing synthesis protocol, a series of 4-phenylquinazolin-2(1H)-one derivatives were synthetized using a conventional methodology and microwave (MW) irradiation with urea and substituted 2-aminobenzophenones as the preliminary compounds (Scheme 1).…”

Benefits and applications of microwave-assisted synthesis of nitrogen containing heterocycles in medicinal chemistry

“…Monomode MW heating equipment is currently applied in synthetic organic chemistry in solvent-free reactions, small-scale drug discovery development and optimization of methods. 11 The most important advantage of single-mode apparatus is the high rate of heating, but, compared to multi-mode cavities, only one vessel can be irradiated at a time. However, aer the completion of the reaction period, the reaction mixture can be rapidly cooled with compressed air.…”

Microwave-assisted simple synthesis of 2-anilinopyrimidines by the reaction of 2-chloro-4,6-dimethylpyrimidine with aniline derivatives

“…In the last years a large number of heterocyclic compounds including anilinopyrimidines has been synthesized by microwave (MW) irradiation. [19][20][21] The main advantage of the use of this technique is the decrease of the reaction time from several hours to a few minutes or seconds in comparison to the results obtained on conventional heating. 22,23 Moreover, less byproducts are formed in MW-assisted reactions.…”