In recent years, continuous-flow technology has become an increasingly welcome tool and has proven to be an excellent strategy for the advancement of photochemical synthesis in academic and industrial research. As the core equipment, the development of photo-microreactors plays an important role in the progress of flow photochemistry and its industrial applications. Photo-microreactors have much shorter characteristic transport distance and extremely higher surface-to-volume ratio, leading to faster heat and mass transfer rates and more homogeneous irradiation of light intensity compared to conventional batch systems. These advantages occupied by photo-microreactors not only significantly improve the yield and selectivity of synthetic products, but also benefit for the scale-up of photochemical transformations. At present, many research groups and high-tech companies have focused on the design and research of photo-microreactors, and interdisciplinary theories and methods have been utilized for the development of flow photochemistry.
Nowadays, many research groups and pharmaceutical companies have paid more attention to photochemistry for manufacturing specific chemicals and medicines. The demand for high-performance photo-microreactors is becoming increasingly urgent. However, some problems or challenges such as intense heat radiation and wavelength-matching, low efficiency in light collection and energy conversion, reactor transmittance efficiency, plugging, reaction fluid leakage and stability still need to be strenuously tackled with in order to achieve the industrial applications of photo-microreactors. In addition, the integration of flow photochemistry with high-throughput screening, automatic control and on-line detection technology is expected to form intelligent and automatic photochemical synthesis processes. This Research Topic will present the recent advances in design of novel photo-microreactors and synthesis of new materials and high-valued chemicals using flow photochemistry strategies. The aim of the current Research Topic is to cover promising, recent, and novel research trends in the field of photo-microreactors and flow photochemistry. We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:
• Novel design, technology or materials for the fabrication of energy-efficient photo-microreactors and its applications
• Mechanism analysis of photon and mass transfer in photo-microreactors
• Reaction kinetics for the study and standardization of photo-microreactor performance evaluation
• Scale-up to promote the industrial applications of low-cost and high-throughput photochemical synthesis processes
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) guide high-throughput screening and development of photochemical processes for the synthesis of fine chemicals
In recent years, continuous-flow technology has become an increasingly welcome tool and has proven to be an excellent strategy for the advancement of photochemical synthesis in academic and industrial research. As the core equipment, the development of photo-microreactors plays an important role in the progress of flow photochemistry and its industrial applications. Photo-microreactors have much shorter characteristic transport distance and extremely higher surface-to-volume ratio, leading to faster heat and mass transfer rates and more homogeneous irradiation of light intensity compared to conventional batch systems. These advantages occupied by photo-microreactors not only significantly improve the yield and selectivity of synthetic products, but also benefit for the scale-up of photochemical transformations. At present, many research groups and high-tech companies have focused on the design and research of photo-microreactors, and interdisciplinary theories and methods have been utilized for the development of flow photochemistry.
Nowadays, many research groups and pharmaceutical companies have paid more attention to photochemistry for manufacturing specific chemicals and medicines. The demand for high-performance photo-microreactors is becoming increasingly urgent. However, some problems or challenges such as intense heat radiation and wavelength-matching, low efficiency in light collection and energy conversion, reactor transmittance efficiency, plugging, reaction fluid leakage and stability still need to be strenuously tackled with in order to achieve the industrial applications of photo-microreactors. In addition, the integration of flow photochemistry with high-throughput screening, automatic control and on-line detection technology is expected to form intelligent and automatic photochemical synthesis processes. This Research Topic will present the recent advances in design of novel photo-microreactors and synthesis of new materials and high-valued chemicals using flow photochemistry strategies. The aim of the current Research Topic is to cover promising, recent, and novel research trends in the field of photo-microreactors and flow photochemistry. We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:
• Novel design, technology or materials for the fabrication of energy-efficient photo-microreactors and its applications
• Mechanism analysis of photon and mass transfer in photo-microreactors
• Reaction kinetics for the study and standardization of photo-microreactor performance evaluation
• Scale-up to promote the industrial applications of low-cost and high-throughput photochemical synthesis processes
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) guide high-throughput screening and development of photochemical processes for the synthesis of fine chemicals