Stereoselective chemoenzymatic synthesis of enantiopure 2-(1H-imidazol-yl)cycloalkanols under continuous flow conditions

Abstract

The development of continuous flow processes for the synthesis of chiral enantiopure 1-(2-hydroxycycloalkyl)imidazoles is reported. For the ring-opening reaction microwave batch processes and continuous flow reactions have led to similar results in terms of conversion, although the productivity is clearly improved under flow. The use of continuous flow systems for the lipase-catalyzed kinetic resolution of the racemic 2-(1H-imidazol-yl)cycloalkanols with either immobilized CAL-B or PSL-C has been demonstrated to be significantly more efficient than the corresponding batch processes. The continuous flow biotransformations have allowed us to easily increase the production of these chiral imidazoles, adequate building blocks in the synthesis of chiral ionic liquids