Scalable Wolff–Kishner Reductions in Extreme Process Windows Using a Silicon Carbide Flow Reactor

A safe and scalable continuous flow strategy for Wolff–Kishner reductions that employs methanol as the solvent has been developed. The use of low-cost hydrazine as the reducing agent in combination with a caustic base provides an atom-efficient, environmentally friendly method for the deoxygenation of aldehydes and ketones to alkanes. Because of the required harsh and corrosive reaction conditions (200 °C, 50 bar), reactor materials such as stainless steel, glass, or any type of polymer have compatibility problems, rendering this process problematic on a production scale. The use of corrosion-resistant silicon carbide (SiC) as the reactor material opens up the possibility of performing Wolff–Kishner reductions on scale with a considerably improved safety profile. Methanol as the solvent significantly simplifies the workup procedure compared with the generally employed high-boiling solvents such as diethylene glycol. The continuous flow protocol was applied to a number of substrates and provided the desired products in good to high yields with space-time yields of up to 152 g L –1 h –1 . In addition, a pharmaceutically valuable active pharmaceutical ingredient precursor was synthesized by employing this high-temperature/pressure Wolff–Kishner protocol.