(452h) Development of Polymer Monolith Pd Catalysts for Batch, Modular Continuous Flow and Novel 3-D Printed PEEK Reactor Platforms for Hydrogenation Reactions

Direct Hydrogenation is one of the most heavily utilised and essential reactions within the synthetic routes of many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Continuous hydrogenation as a result is becoming a topic of significant interest throughout the chemical industry with the development of novel reactor technologies^[1] and catalysts^[2], to optimising mass transfer, residence time distribution, and surface area limitations often associated with heterogeneous catalysis.

In this study, novel polymer monolith Pd catalysts have been developed for both batch and continuous flow hydrogenations. Modular reactors based on standard tubes and fittings utilised the commercially available H-Cube. Comparison with 5% Pd/C for the direct hydrogenation of nitro, alkene, and imine functional groups were investigated. Furthermore, novel 3-D printed polymer reactors fabricated in the chemically and mechanically resistant material PEEK (poly(etheretherketone)) have been designed and printed for heterogenous hydrogenation reactions^[3]. The monolithic catalysts developed are ideally suited for incorporation into Fused Filament Fabrication printed reactors as they can be covalently attached to the reactor walls, grown within complex printed geometries and catalyst synthesis conditions are compatible with standard PEEK processing conditions.

Acknowledgements:

This publication is supported by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through SSPC, The SFI Research Centre for Pharmaceuticals (Grant number 12/RC/2275_P2) and I-Form, the SFI Research Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (Grant number 16/RC/3872)

References:

[1] M. O’Brien, N. Taylor, A. Polyzos, I. R. Baxendale, S. V. Ley, Chem. Sci. 2011, 2, 1250–1257.

[2] CH. Pélisson T. Nakanishi, Y. Zhu, K. Morisato, T. Kamei, A. Maeno, H. Kaji, S. Muroyama, M. Tafu, K. Kanamori, T. Shimada, K. Nakanishi, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces., 2017, 1, 406–412 .

[3] M. J. Harding, S. Brady, H. O’Connor, R. Lopez-Rodriguez, M. D. Edwards, S. Tracy, D. Dowling, G. Gibson, K. P. Girard, S. Ferguson, React. Chem. Eng., 2020, 5, 728-735