Continuous Synthesis and Use of N-Heterocyclic Carbene Copper(I) Complexes from Insoluble Cu2O

• Suzanne M. Opalka¹
• Jin Kyoon Park³
• Ashley R. Longstreet²
• D. Tyler McQuade²

• ¹Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, USA
• ²Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, USA
• ³Department of Chemistry and Chemical Institute for Functional Materials, Pusan National University, Korea

It is demonstrated that homogeneous N-heterocyclic carbene–copper(I)-chloride complexes can be prepared continuously by flowing NHC precursors through a packed bed of solid Cu₂O suspended in molecular sieves. The method enables the synthesis of a wide range of complexes including those that are challenging to prepare using standard approaches. Our strategy enables both sustained output of complex production for long-term catalytic reactions (greater than 5 h) and for generation of gram quantities for storage (greater than 1 g of complex in ∼16 min).

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