Aerobic oxidations in continuous flow

In recent years, the high demand for sustainable processes resulted in the development of highly attractive oxidation protocols utilizing molecular oxygen or even air instead of more uneconomic and often toxic reagents. The application of these sustainable, gaseous oxidants in conventional batch reactors is often associated with severe safety risks and process challenges especially on larger scales. Continuous flow technology offers the possibility to minimize these safety hazards and concurrently allows working in high-temperature/high-pressure regimes to access highly efficient oxidation protocols. This review article critically discusses recent literature examples of flow methodologies for selective aerobic oxidations of organic compounds. Several technologies and reactor designs for biphasic gas/liquid as well as supercritical reaction media are presented in detail. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.