Cation-pool method system

In the cation pool method organic cations are generated by electrochemical oxidation and are accumulated in a solution. In the next step, a suitable nucleophile is added to the thus-generated solution of the cation. In the cation flow method organic cations are generated by electrochemical oxidation using a microflow cell. The cation thus generated is allowed to react with a nucleophile in the flow system. 

The cation pool method enables easy manipulation of organic cation intermediates to achieve reactions with various nucleophiles, but its applicability strongly depends on the stability of the cation that is generated and accumulated. In order to solve this problem, the cation flow method using a microflow electrochemical system has been developed.9,27... 

The electrochemical method is also effective for the oxidation of heteroatom compounds. For example, oxidation of carbamates using a microflow electrochemical cell leads to the formation of N-acyliminium ion, which is allowed to react with various carbon nucleophiles such as allylsilanes in the flow system (Figure 7.5). This is a microflow version of the cation pool method, in which highly reactive organic cations are generated and accumulated in the absence of nucleophile and are allowed to react with nucleophiles in the next step [36-47]. The microflow version is called the cation flow method [48, 49]. The cation flow method can be applied, in principle, to more reactive and unstable organic cations, which are difficult to accumulate in a macro-scale batch system. 

The distannane mediated organic radical addition to A -acyliminium ions [13], and the benzylic radical addition to A/ -acyliminium ions which proceeds via radical/cation/radical cation chain mechanism [14] show that the cation pool can be utilized as good nucleophilic radical acceptors because of their strong electrophilic character. Iterative molecular assembly based on the cation pool method lead to the efficient formation of dendritic molecules [15]. The manipulation of the cation pool in the microflow system realized an efficient... 

Although the applications to A-acyliminium ions, alkoxycarbeniumions, and benzylic cations were successful, it seems to be difficult to apply the method to less stabilized cations. The applicability of the cation pool method inebitably depends upon the stability of the cation that is accumulated. The cation flow method [20, 21] which involves generation of carbocations in a microflow electrochemical system should be much more favorable because of short residence times and efficient temperature control. 

Polymerization of vinyl ethers initiated by an A -acyUminium ion pool has demonstrated that the molecular weight and the molecular weight distribution can be controlled by using the flow microreactor system (Fig. 10.5) [4, 5]. An iV-acyh-minium ion generated and accumulated by the cation pool method was used as an initiator, which was mixed with a vinyl ether at high speed using a micromixer. The polymerization proceeded in a flow microreactor and was complete within a short residence time. An amine was then introduced using a micromixer to terminate the polymerization. Thus, this polymerization can be called flash polymerization. 

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