A monolithic 5-(pyrrolidin-2-yl)tetrazole flow microreactor for the asymmetric aldol reaction in water–ethanol solvent

An (S)-5-(pyrrolidin-2-yl)-1H-tetrazole organocatalyst has been prepared in the form of a monolithic column through the radical copolymerization of a styryl-functionalized pyrrolidinyl-tetrazole derivative, styrene and divinylbenzene in the presence of porogens (dodecanol and toluene). The activity of the monolithic pyrrolidinyl-tetrazole organocatalyst (triturated polymer) has been initially tested under batch conditions using the asymmetric aldol reaction of cyclohexanone and p-nitrobenzaldehyde as the benchmark. A prerequisite of the study has been the utilization of the eco-friendly water–ethanol mixture as the solvent. After having established the high efficiency and recyclability of the catalyst under these conditions, the effect of the flow regime has been evaluated by fabricating the corresponding monolithic microreactor (pressure-resistant stainless steel column). It has been demonstrated by a brief substrate scope study that the flow regime contributes to preserve the activity of the pyrrolidinyl-tetrazole catalyst over time (5 days on stream) with an almost twofold increase in productivity moving from batch to flow conditions. An added value of the flow procedure has been the optimization of a suitable 2D instrumental setup for simultaneous flow reaction and online flow-injection analysis.