Online seminar  /  March 02, 2022, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. CET

Webinar "Organometallics in flow: From research results to applications"

Speaker: Dr. Gabriele Menges-Flanagan

For over 150 years, first zinc organometallic reagents (RZnX) and later on Grignard reagents (RMgX) and their follow-up reactions (catalyzed and non-catalyzed cross couplings for RZnX, Grignard reaction for RMgX) with appropriate electrophilic reagents have been an invaluable tool for process chemists in the formation of new carbon–carbon bonds. However, drawbacks associated with the conventional batch processing such as high exothermicity requiring effective heat management result in challenges that can be efficiently addressed by continuous processing to enable large scale industrial production. Continuous processing in the intermediates’ formation and subsequent reactions provides superior heat management and allows for the provision of a large metal excess in the reactor to suppress unwanted side product formation.

The establishment of a laboratory scale reactor and its application in the continuous synthesis of a number of common zinc as well as Grignard reagents via processing of solid/liquid mixtures allowed for the proof-of-principle of the approach. Zinc (catalysed and non-catalysed) and magnesium organometallic reagent coupling reactions also performed on the laboratory scale completed the picture. As a highlight and a look into the future of continuous processing of organometallic intermediates, scale-up efforts building a modular pilots scale reactor set-up enabling halide throughputs of up to 20l/h was achieved. This was then also coupled with newly developed 3D laser melted modular reactors for the immediate consumption of the reactive intermediates in follow-up reactions.

In this webinar, we will present relevant research results and show Fraunhofer IMM’s technology ready to be implemented in an industrial environment to flexibly and continuously process organometallic reagents so our partners can benefit from our experience in application-oriented research and development in the field of reactive intermediates.