FLOW MICROREATORS AS ENABLING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE GENESIS AND USE OF (HIGHLY) REACTIVE ORGANOLITHIUM REAGENTS

In the era of breathtaking technological advances, scientists have new tools for supporting fundamental science, thus having the opportunity to face unresolved challenges, and to explore new possibilities. In the field of organic synthesis, the advent of flow chemistry and flow microreactor technology allowed the refining of various synthetic methodologies offering the possibility to explore transformations impossible to run using batch methods. In this contribution, our recent efforts on the use of flow microreactor technology for the genesis and use of short-lived organolithium intermediates will be presented. In this context, specific attention will be devoted to the development of new fluorination strategies exploiting fluorinated lithium carbenoids. Furthermore, the benefits of flow microreactor technology in taming other lithiated short-lived intermediates will be described.