Diels–Alder reactions of myrcene using intensified continuous-flow reactors

Christian H. Hornung, Miguel Á. Álvarez-Diéguez, Thomas M. Kohl and John Tsanaktsidis

• CSIRO Manufacturing, Bag 10, Clayton South, Victoria 3169, Australia

This work describes the Diels–Alder reaction of the naturally occurring substituted butadiene, myrcene, with a range of different naturally occurring and synthetic dienophiles. The synthesis of the Diels–Alder adduct from myrcene and acrylic acid, containing surfactant properties, was scaled-up in a plate-type continuous-flow reactor with a volume of 105 mL to a throughput of 2.79 kg of the final product per day. This continuous-flow approach provides a facile alternative scale-up route to conventional batch processing, and it helps to intensify the synthesis protocol by applying higher reaction temperatures and shorter reaction times.

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