Catalytic surfactants for the design of oxidizing polyphasic microdispersed reaction media. Application to microreactors. – CATASURF

Nowadays, “Green Chemistry” is a central issue in both academia and industry with regard to chemical synthesis. Chemical producers are facing increased requirements of both regulatory and economic nature that have to be met with in order to remain a competitive and sustainable player. Academic researchers have to take into account this changing in their research programs. Among the diversity of transformations required for the manufacture of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, synthetic fibres, plastics..., oxidation holds a prominent place as a core technology for producing chemicals of a higher oxidation state. However, traditional oxidation methods based on metal or organic stoichiometric oxidants are unacceptable for practical synthesis because of their high cost, their high waste or their toxic reagents and dangerous processing. Hence, there is a need for the invention of clean and safe oxidation procedures. Catalytic oxidation methods are attractive from an economic, environmental and safety viewpoint. Among the various oxidants used in catalytic oxidation reactions, hydrogen peroxide is still receiving much attention because of its relevance to sustainable chemistry. Within this context, the basic research CATASURF project aims at developing new “green” catalytic processes for fine-chemicals manufacture with a low environmental impact involving H2O2 as the oxidant. The project mainly comprises two approaches driven both by the respect of the molecular and energy economy principles and by the development of an environmentally friendly and safe process:
1) Elaboration of efficient oxidizing microdispersed reaction media, i.e. three-liquid-phase microemulsion systems or triphasic emulsions based on catalytic surfactants and environmentally friendly solvents, ensuring an easy recovery of both products and catalyst in two different phases.
2) Transfer of the systems from the batch reactor technology to the microreactor technology.
The problem solving requires a multi-disciplinary approach involving highly complementary research groups specialized in synthetic organic oxidation chemistry, polyoxometalates, surfactants, (micro)emulsions, colloidal chemistry and microfluidic. Thus, the CATASURF project associates four partners: the Group EA “Chimie Moléculaire et Formulation” at the University of Lille, the Group Polyoxometalates of the “Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire”, the Group UMR 5257 of the “Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule” and the DSM Innovative Synthesis Company at Geleen in The Netherlands. DSM is recognized as a global technology leader with respect to application of microreactor technology for the manufacture of chemicals.Its microreactor facilities are applied for the production of chemical intermediates that are impossible to prepare otherwise on a commercial of several hundreds of tons per year. The industrial collaboration with a chemical producer such as DSM, as well as its expertise in microreactor technology, will be highly beneficial to the academic partners and will ensure optimum process conditions and proper translation of academic findings into a future possible industrial application. On the other hand, the elaboration of microstructured reaction media based on catalytic surfactants is conditioned by a deep understanding of the physicochemical properties (surface activity, self-aggregation, microstructure characterization…) to which the Group of Marcoule will bring its solid expertise.