Abstract

New Frontiers in Flow Technology and Reaction Processes

Aaron Beeler, Assistant Professor, Boston University

In the Beeler Research Group, we are developing new technologies and approaches that can be applied to natural product synthesis and medicinal chemistry. The lecture will highlight developments in challenging reactions which can be used to access complex small molecules which are critical in our multidisciplinary and collaborative research. A common theme in our lab is the use of flow chemistry to develop efficient reactions and processes that overcome limiting boundaries that are prevalent in batch reactions. Flow chemistry allows us to reconsider the utility of many transformations for applications in synthesis, such as photochemical reactions of cinnamates to access complex cyclobutanes and visible light excitation of pyridinium ylides to afford azepines and related analogues. I hope to demonstrate how flow chemistry provides us a tool for development of new and more efficient reactions that are robust, highly scalable, and provide access to complex and novel chemotypes.