Recent progress on photoreactions in microreactors*
Yoshihisa Matsushita1, Teijiro Ichimura2, Nobuko Ohba2, Shinji Kumada2, Kosaku Sakeda2, Tadashi Suzuki2, Hideki Tanibata3, and Toshiaki Murata4
1Department of Chemistry and 2Department of Chemistry and Materials Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ohokayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan; 3Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan; 4Mitsui Zosen Plant Engineering Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Abstract: A microreaction system for organic photoreactions was developed, and the processes of diastereo-differentiating photosensitized reaction, photocatalytic oxidation and reduction of organic compounds, and amine N-alkylation were examined in microspace. These model reactions proceeded very rapidly with considerably large photonic efficiencies because of some distinct properties of microreactors for photoreactions, such as higher spatial illumination homogeneity and better light penetration through the entire reactor depth, and large surface-to-volume ratio in comparison with large-scale batch reactors. These results suggest feasibility of microreaction systems on organic photoreactions.
Keywords: photochemistry; photocatalyst; endocrine disrupters; spectroscopy; asymmetric reaction.
*Pure Appl. Chem. 79, 1831-2100. An issue of reviews and research papers based on lectures presented at the 1st International IUPAC Conference on Green-Sustainable Chemistry, held in Dresden, Germany, 10-15 September 2006.