Date: 18 June 2020 | Category: News
Top 20 papers of the decade
We, at Vapourtec, are extremely proud of the role we play in contributing towards scientific development. Some of our most innovative reactors have allowed scientists all around the world to push the barriers of knowledge further, discovering new arenas of chemistry.
In the last decade only, our customers and collaborators published 500 papers. These papers focused on many different fields of science but the authors all shared a common ground, the trust in Vapourtec flow systems to enable their discoveries.
In order to celebrate success within science, we looked back at the past decade, and made a list of the 20 most influential papers that were published in the 10’s decade.
368
Citations
“Fighting malaria with light”
In 2012, Francois Lévesque and Peter Seeberger developed a photochemical route to synthetically produce artemisinin, a key anti-Malaria drug, instead of extracting it. This breakthrough provides an inexpensive and scalable chemical route.
179
Citations
Aryl amination powered by photoredox catalysis
In 2016, David MacMillan’s team reported a different way to form C-N bonds without the need of Pd based catalysts. In their approach, a tandem nickel-photoredox catalytic system, they created a complementary approach to traditional techniques for reductive elimination.
162
Citations
Heterogeneous reactions to yield organic acids
In 2010, Steve Ley’s team taught the scientific community how you could synthesise a variety of organic acids by simply carboxylating Grignard reagents with CO2 in a tube-in-tube gas permeable membrane reactor.
101
Citations
Generating imines via singlet oxygen
In 2013, two groups, D. T. McQuade’s and P. H. Seeberger’s joined forces to develop a greener synthetic route to oxidise primary and secondary amines to imines by photogenerating of singlet oxygen.
95
Citations
Making organometallic chemistry easy
In 2013, Steven Ley’s group in collaboration with Vapourtec led the way of easing the life of an organic chemist in a lab. Organometallic reagents are as highly versatile reagents as the can be dangerous and difficult to handle. They illustrated their approach by telescoping the synthesis of (E/Z)-tamoxifen.
94
Citations
A new radical control of polymerisation
In 2011, the CSIRO team implemented flow chemistry to their patented reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer approach (RAFT) radical polymerisation, which prevented quenching of the radical process. This new approach presents an alternative to existing batch processes.
91
Citations
Oxygenating without bubbling
In 2011, Steven Ley’s group reported the application of tube-in-tube reactors to carry out oxygen mediated reactions in a homogeneous media. This was achieved by using this unusual type of reactor, which allowed oxygen saturation of the solution within 16 seconds.
85
Citations
Understanding Aryl Magnesium chemistry through IR
In 2012, Steven Ley’s group explored the application of IR inline analysis to gain a deeper insight on for the preparation of functionalised arylmagnesium compounds from their halide counterparts. Thanks to the inline analysis capability, conversion could be calculated from IR.
74
Citations
Scalable synthesis of Metal-Organic Frameworks
In 2015, researchers at CSIRO overcame one of the biggest barriers presented when scaling up MOFs synthesis in batch; the inability to scale up due to nucleation at the reaction surface. Thanks to the adaption of a continuous flow reactor, they were able to scale up without loss of yield.
74
Citations
Purifying intermediates in flow
In 2010, the Ley group expanded the continuous flow synthesis capabilities by incorporating solid-supported scavengers. They remove by-products of the flow stream on this four step synthesis, saving time and reagents compared to standard purification techniques.
70
Citations
Holistic approach to drug discovery
In 2013, the team at Cyclofluidic showed to the wider scientific community a completely new approach by fully integrating microfluidic systems. By combining flow chemistry with inline analysis and bioassay techniques, dissociating the terms “costly” and “lengthy process” from drug discovery.
63
Citations
When reactors become catalysts
In 2011, Novartis, in collaboration with MIT reported a methodology to carry out Ullmann condensations in flow. This was achieved by using the very same copper tubular reactor as catalysis for this reaction without adding any other metal.
54
Citations
Recycling carbohydrates into multifunctional chemical platforms
In 2011, the team at CSIRO, led by J. Tsanaktsidis, developed a biphasic flow process to convert carbohydrates into more added value chemicals, such as 5-(chloromethyl)furfural. This short green chemical route yielded (with high purities) the desired products in a multigram scale.
46
Citations
Synthesising indoles for drug precursors in flow
In 2011, Peter H. Seeberger’s teams reported the thermolysis of azidoacrylates in flow. This represented an efficient and safe approach to optimise the reaction conditions at a lab scale before scaling it up.
42
Citations
Catching-Synthesising-Releasing
In 2012, Steven Ley’s team used monolith supported-thiouronium salts to synthesise a library of 2-aminopyridines from available amines. Thanks to the use of solid supported synthesis, isolation of the final products was much simplified.
33
Citations
Harnessing the power of light for C-H arylation
In 2015, Oliver Kappe’s team developed a catalyst-free photochemical “One-pot” C-H arylation. This was achieved by generating in situ diazo anhydride intermediates under neutral conditions. The generated aryl radical then reacted to yield the desired product.
22
Citations
Tandem chemistry, using photons and heat
In 2015, Michael Oelgemöller’s team showed the benefits of carrying photochemical reactions in flow, by achieving in a meso-scale the photodecarboxylation of phthalimides. Moreover, by setting a second reactor in series, they synthesised a biological active target compound.
19
Citations
Tailoring photosensitisers
In 2016, Filipe Vilela’s and Zhengtao Xu’s developed different efficient synthetic routed to create a highly photoactive BODIPY-based conjugated microporous polymer, ideal for singlet oxygen production when irradiated with a 530 nm LED.
13
Citations
Controlling Grignard formation in flow
In 2017, Jesús Alcazar’s team, in collaboration with the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, published an extensive piece of work exploring the activation of magnesium in both batch and flow, and how it allowed access to a wide variety of functional groups.
6
Citations
The power of electrochemistry
In 2019, a joint effort between Thomas Wirth’s group and Vapourtec led to a breakthrough state-of-the-art continuous flow electrochemical reactor, which opens a new array of green reactions. This reagentless approach is already shaping organic synthesis; watch the Vapourtec website for more details of developing electrochemistry in flow.
*Number of citations were checked on 18.06.2020