Monolithic polymer/carrier materials: Versatile composites for fine chemical synthesis

At our institutes composite materials were developed, which ideally allow to combine polymer functionalization utilized for organic synthesis with good mass transfer properties of monolithic carriers. Starting with a megaporous glass carrier material, a polymer is introduced into the pore volume of this support. During the precipitation co-polymerization small polymer spheres are formed, which are connected by polymer bridges, resulting in a rigid polymer monolith intruding the glass. This unique combination leads to versatile materials for organic synthesis, which can be used in a flow-through mode. Based on these monolithic materials with different polymer functionalities a wide variety of different chemical reactions was conducted such as selective reductions, Suzuki cross coupling reactions, nucleophilic substitutions and catalytic transfer hydrogenations. These reactions were performed with reactors constructed from monolithic materials of different sizes allowing to achieve production capacities ranging from the millimole range to several gramms.