(446b) Engineering Composite Hollow Fiber As a Heterogeneous Catalyst and Continuous-Flow Microfluidic Reactor for Sustainable Production of Fine Chemicals

The use of multifunctional organocatalysts and continuous flow platform are commonplace in modern chemical transformation. Herein, we describe a method for immobilization of trifunctional organocatalysts on porous composite hollow fiber and demonstrate their application as heterogeneous catalyst and continuous-flow microfluidic reactor for chemical transformation. The polyamide imide hollow fibers (PAIHF’s) are functionalized with aminosilanes and bromine source to immobilize covalently hydrogen-bond donor groups (-OH and -NH), and nucleophilic [Br^−] species upon the fiber surface and provide trifunctional acid-base-nucleophilic organocatalysts and microfluidic reactors. The cooperative effects of Br/APS/PAIHF trifunctional organocatalysts are elucidated in the CO₂ cycloaddition and hydroxyalkylation of aniline[1], Heck-coupling reaction[2], aldol and nitroaldol condensation[3], tandem reaction of glucose and fructose 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)[4] as well as under batch and continuous flow synthesis. Investigation of the synergistic cooperative effect of trifunctional organocatalyst on PAIHF, their stability and efficiency through evaluation and recycling experiments revealed the PAIHF microfluidic system enables precise control of the reaction flow rate, temperature, and time while eliminating the need for an additional catalyst separation step and opening up new opportunities for the sustainable production of fine chemicals in a continuous-flow system.

[1] A.-A. Alwakwak, Y. He, A. Almuslem, M. Senter, A.K. Itta, F. Rezaei, A. Rownaghi, React. Chem. Eng. 5 (2020) 289-299.

[2] Y. He, F. Rezaei, S. Kapila, A.A. Rownaghi, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9 (2017) 16288–16295.

[3] Y. He, A. Jawad, X. Li, M. Atanga, F. Rezaei, A.A. Rownaghi, J. Catal. 341 (2016) 149–159.

[4] Y. He, A.K. Itta, A.-A. Alwakwak, M. Huang, F. Rezaei, A.A. Rownaghi, ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 6 (2018) 17211-17219.