Photochemical synthesis of a "cage" compound in a microreactor: Rigorous comparison with a batch photoreactor

Tristan Aillet (1) , Karine Loubiere (1) , Odile Dechy-Cabaret (2) , Laurent E. Prat (1)

1 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique
2 LCC - Laboratoire de chimie de coordination

An intramolecular [2 + 2] photocycloaddition is performed in a microphotoreactor (0.81 mL) built by winding FEP tubing around a commercially available Pyrex immersion well in which a medium pressure mercury lamp is inserted. A rigorous comparison with a batch photoreactor (225 mL) is proposed by means of a simple model coupling the reaction kinetics with the mass, momentum and radiative transfer equations. This serves as a basis to explain why the chemical conversion and the irradiation time are respectively increased and reduced in the microphotoreactor relative to those in the batch photoreactor. Through this simple model reaction, some criteria for transposing photochemical synthesis from a batch photoreactor to a continuous microphotoreactor are defined.

Mots clés: Flow photochemistry; Microreactor; Batch photoreactor Radiation field; Modeling

Domaines: Génie chimique

Tristan Aillet, Karine Loubiere, Odile Dechy-Cabaret, Laurent E. Prat. Photochemical synthesis of a "cage" compound in a microreactor: Rigorous comparison with a batch photoreactor. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 2013, Vol. 64, pp. 38-47. ⟨10.1016/j.cep.2012.10.017⟩. ⟨hal-00881067⟩