High-Productivity Single-Pass Electrochemical Birch Reduction of Naphthalenes in a Continuous Flow Electrochemical Taylor Vortex Reactor (2022)
Journal Article
Lee, D. S., Love, A., Mansouri, Z., Waldron Clarke, T. H., Harrowven, D. C., Jefferson-Loveday, R., …George, M. W. (2022). High-Productivity Single-Pass Electrochemical Birch Reduction of Naphthalenes in a Continuous Flow Electrochemical Taylor Vortex Reactor. Organic Process Research and Development, 26(9), 2674-2684. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.2c00108

We report the development of a single-pass electrochemical Birch reduction carried out in a small footprint electrochemical Taylor vortex reactor with projected productivities of >80 g day-1 (based on 32.2 mmol h-1), using a modified version of our p... Read More about High-Productivity Single-Pass Electrochemical Birch Reduction of Naphthalenes in a Continuous Flow Electrochemical Taylor Vortex Reactor.

Photochemistry of transition metal carbonyls (2022)
Journal Article
Turner, J. J., George, M. W., Poliakoff, M., & Perutz, R. N. (2022). Photochemistry of transition metal carbonyls. Chemical Society Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cs00826a

The purpose of this Tutorial Review is to outline the fundamental photochemistry of metal carbonyls, and to show how the advances in technology have increased our understanding of the detailed mechanisms, particularly how relatively simple experiment... Read More about Photochemistry of transition metal carbonyls.

High Yielding Continuous-Flow Synthesis of Norketamine (2022)
Journal Article
Hernando, M. V., Moore, J. C., Howie, R. A., Castledine, R. A., Bourne, S. L., Jenkins, G. N., …George, M. W. (2022). High Yielding Continuous-Flow Synthesis of Norketamine. Organic Process Research and Development, 26(4), 1145-1151. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00407

A new continuous-flow process is presented for synthesis of the pharmaceutical intermediate norketamine (5). Our approach has been to take the well-established and industrially applied batch synthetic route to this promising antidepressant precursor... Read More about High Yielding Continuous-Flow Synthesis of Norketamine.

Selective photoinduced charge separation in perylenediimide-pillar[5]arene rotaxanes (2022)
Journal Article
Pearce, N., Reynolds, K. E. A., Kayal, S., Sun, X. Z., Davies, E. S., Malagreca, F., …Champness, N. R. (2022). Selective photoinduced charge separation in perylenediimide-pillar[5]arene rotaxanes. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 415. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28022-3

The ability to control photoinduced charge transfer within molecules represents a major challenge requiring precise control of the relative positioning and orientation of donor and acceptor groups. Here we show that such photoinduced charge transfer... Read More about Selective photoinduced charge separation in perylenediimide-pillar[5]arene rotaxanes.

Wavelength dependent photoextrusion and tandem photo-extrusion reactions of ninhydrin bis-acetals for the synthesis of 8-ring lactones, benzocyclobutenes and orthoanhydrides (2021)
Journal Article
Sun, W., Kayal, S., Raimbach, W. A. T., Sun, X. Z., Light, M. E., Hanson-Heine, M. W. D., …Harrowven, D. C. (2022). Wavelength dependent photoextrusion and tandem photo-extrusion reactions of ninhydrin bis-acetals for the synthesis of 8-ring lactones, benzocyclobutenes and orthoanhydrides. Chemical Communications, 58(10), 1546-1549. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cc06800h

Ninhydrin bis-acetals give access to 8-ring lactones, benzocyclo-butenes and spirocyclic orthoanhydrides through photoextrusion and tandem photoextrusion reactions. Syntheses of fimbricalyxlactone B, isoshihunine and numerous biologically-relevant he... Read More about Wavelength dependent photoextrusion and tandem photo-extrusion reactions of ninhydrin bis-acetals for the synthesis of 8-ring lactones, benzocyclobutenes and orthoanhydrides.

Self-Optimization of Continuous Flow Electrochemical Synthesis Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography (2021)
Journal Article
Ke, J., Gao, C., Folgueiras-Amador, A. A., Jolley, K. E., de Frutos, O., Mateos, C., …George, M. W. (2022). Self-Optimization of Continuous Flow Electrochemical Synthesis Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography. Applied Spectroscopy, 76(1), 38-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/00037028211059848

A continuous-flow electrochemical synthesis platform has been developed to enable self-optimization of reaction conditions of organic electrochemical reactions using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR FT-IR) and... Read More about Self-Optimization of Continuous Flow Electrochemical Synthesis Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography.

Schengen-pathway controls spatially separated and chemically distinct lignin deposition in the endodermis (2021)
Working Paper
Reyt, G., Ramakrishna, P., Salas-Gonzalez, I., Fujita, S., Love, A., Tiemessen, D., …Salt, D. E. Schengen-pathway controls spatially separated and chemically distinct lignin deposition in the endodermis

Lignin is a complex polymer precisely deposited in the cell wall of specialised plant cells, where it provides essential cellular functions. Plants coordinate timing, location, abundance and composition of lignin deposition in response to endogenous... Read More about Schengen-pathway controls spatially separated and chemically distinct lignin deposition in the endodermis.

Integrated Multistep Photochemical and Thermal Continuous Flow Reactions: Production of Bicyclic Lactones with Kilogram Productivity (2021)
Journal Article
Howie, R. A., Elliott, L. D., Kayal, S., Sun, X. Z., Hanson-Heine, M. W., Hunter, J., …George, M. W. (2021). Integrated Multistep Photochemical and Thermal Continuous Flow Reactions: Production of Bicyclic Lactones with Kilogram Productivity. Organic Process Research and Development, 25(9), 2052-2059. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00089

Combining continuous photochemistry and flow reactions in high-temperature/high-pressure water has enabled us to integrate a multistep sequence into a single process with a reduction in reaction time to 24 h in batch. At the same time, applying this... Read More about Integrated Multistep Photochemical and Thermal Continuous Flow Reactions: Production of Bicyclic Lactones with Kilogram Productivity.

Multigram Synthesis of Trioxanes Enabled by a Supercritical CO2 Integrated Flow Process (2021)
Journal Article
Wu, L., Abreu, B. L., Blake, A. J., Taylor, L. J., Lewis, W., Argent, S. P., …George, M. W. (2021). Multigram Synthesis of Trioxanes Enabled by a Supercritical CO2 Integrated Flow Process. Organic Process Research and Development, 25(8), 1873-1881. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00111

Photochemical synthesis of highly reactive hydroperoxides and their conversion into useful products, such as 1,2,4-trioxanes, are of wide interest for synthetic organic chemistry and pharmaceutical manufacturing particularly because of their relevanc... Read More about Multigram Synthesis of Trioxanes Enabled by a Supercritical CO2 Integrated Flow Process.

Excited-State Switching in Rhenium(I) Bipyridyl Complexes with Donor-Donor and Donor-Acceptor Substituents (2021)
Journal Article
Sutton, J. J., Preston, D., Traber, P., Steinmetzer, J., Wu, X., Kayal, S., …Gordon, K. C. (2021). Excited-State Switching in Rhenium(I) Bipyridyl Complexes with Donor-Donor and Donor-Acceptor Substituents. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(24), 9082-9093. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c02755

The optical properties of two Re(CO)3(bpy)Cl complexes in which the bpy is substituted with two donor (triphenylamine, TPA, ReTPA2) as well as both donor (TPA) and acceptor (benzothiadiazole, BTD, ReTPA-BTD) groups are presented. For ReTPA2 the absor... Read More about Excited-State Switching in Rhenium(I) Bipyridyl Complexes with Donor-Donor and Donor-Acceptor Substituents.