Moffat-Swern oxidation of alcohols: Translating a batch reaction to a continuous-flow reaction

The Moffatt-Swern oxidation (MSO) is a multistep, versatile, metal-free reaction by which alcohols are transformed into aldehydes and ketones. Batch MSO requires low temperatures (−70 °C) due to a highly exothermic reaction step that generates intermediates. This work shows that a rigorous investigation of the MSO in batch can be used as a stepping-stone to its implementation in a continuous-flow reactor (CFR). This work has two parts: the first part details the investigation of MSO in batch; the second covers the translation of the knowledge derived from batch to a CFR. The MSO batch reaction was performed under cryogenic conditions with real-time process monitoring. The reaction was monitored with Raman spectroscopy and could be tracked throughout the reaction. All concentrations were validated using offline high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Two configurations of the CFR were produced. Configuration 1 used the traditional batch methodology in...