Continuous flow organometallic catalysis: new wind in old sails

Abstract

Organometallic catalysis is a powerful tool for chemical synthesis, and the field still evolves at a high pace continuously improving efficiencies and opening up new possibilities. However, despite increasing use in specialty and fine chemical production issues of catalyst recovery still hamper broader application and prevent tapping the full potential of this technology on industrial scale. Even though scientists have tackled this problem for decades practicable methods remained scarce. In this contribution we analyse the major challenges of performing organometallic catalysis in continuous flow from a conceptual point of view, and exemplify for recently developed concepts based on near- and supercritical fluids how the integration of molecular and engineering principles can offer new solutions to this persistent problem.