Sviluppo di un processo in continuo per la sintesi di un intermedio farmaceutico

In this work process for the coupling reaction between a secondary chiral alcohol and a heterocyclic amine is studied. The chiral configuration must be inverted. The mesylate derivative of the alcohol is known to be unstable, so a continuous process with no isolation is developed for alcohol activation and amine coupling. This approach led to poor results in terms of yield and chiral purity. As an alternative approach, the Mitsunobu reaction is used. The application of flow chemistry to this reaction is promising since it uses highly energetic compounds and has a fast kinetic. Despite these premises, this approach led to worst results in yield and selectivity when using the substrate of interest. The reaction kinetic basically addresses selectivity towards by-products that in this case are reduced by mass transfer limitation. Mass transfer is the rate determining step.