A General, Green Chemistry Approach for Immobilization of Inorganic Catalysts in Monolithic Porous Flow-Reactors

A general, green chemistry approach is developed for the immobilization of inorganic catalysts in monolithic porous flow-reactors for continuous flow reactions, in which pyrogallol (PG) acts as an assistant layer for the in situ immobilization of various catalysts on the inner pore surface of the flow-reactor. Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), Al2O3, and phosphotungstic acid (HPW) are selected as examples of noble metals, metal oxides, and polyoxometalate (POM) type catalysts, respectively, and the corresponding flow-reactors show high catalytic performance in continuous flow hydrogenation reactions, esterification reactions, and Knoevenagel reactions, respectively. These reactions are important in the treatment of environmental contaminants and in the chemical industry. In addition, multiple monolithic flow-reactors can be assembled together for efficient performance of multi-step cascade reactions.