Evaluation of the Heterogeneously Catalyzed Strecker Reaction Conducted Under Continuous Flow

Building on our experience of micro‐reaction technology, we present herein the evaluation of an integrated borosilicate glass micro reactor in which 51 α‐aminonitriles were synthesized via a series of continuous solution‐phase and heterogeneously catalyzed reaction steps, affording analytically pure products in yields > 99.6 %. As an extension to this, the ability to selectivity synthesize aldehydic Strecker products in the presence of ketonic functionalities was also investigated, concluding with the chemoselective synthesis of 2‐(4‐acetylphenyl)‐2‐(phenethylamino)acetonitrile whereby the desired product was obtained in 99.8 % yield and quantitative purity. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)