Continuous Preparation of Arylmagnesium Reagents in Flow with Inline IR Monitoring

• Tobias Brodmann¹
• Peter Koos¹
• Albrecht Metzger¹
• Paul Knochel^*2
• Steven V. Ley^*1

• ¹Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, U.K.
• ²Department of Chemistry, Ludwig Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

A newly developed microscale ReactIR flow cell was used as a convenient and versatile inline analytical tool for Grignard formation in continuous flow chemical processing. The LiCl-mediated halogen/Mg exchange reaction was used for the preparation of functionalized arylmagnesium compounds from aryl iodides or bromides. Furthermore, inline IR monitoring was used for the analysis of conversion and possible byproduct formation, as well as a potential tool for elucidation of mechanistic details. The results described herein indicate that the continuous flow systems are effective for highly exothermic reactions such as the Grignard exchange reaction due to fast mixing and efficient heat transfer.

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