Asymmetric catalysis in a micro reactor—Ce, Yb and Lu catalysed enantioselective addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to benzaldehyde

A T-shaped micro reactor was used for the optimisation of reaction conditions for the enantioselective silylcyanation of benzaldehyde catalysed by lanthanide–pybox complexes. Compared to a conventional batch procedure, higher conversion was observed within shorter reaction time. The micro reactor process involving Lu(III) afforded essentially the same enantioselectivity as the batch process (73 vs 76% ee), whereas the enantioselectivity was lower in the micro reactor for catalysts containing Yb(III) (53 compared to 72%). Ce(III) provided very low selectivity in both types of processes (1 and 11% ee, respectively). A study of the effect of additives showed that the enantioselectivity in the Yb catalysed reaction performed in the micro reactor could be increased to 66%, whereas only a minor improvement, to 78% ee, was observed in the reaction with Lu.