About

The development of continuous flow toolkits for widely utilised reactions that can be applied to a diverse range of starting materials is critical for the development of flow-based process routes. Valerie’s research focuses on the development, functionalisation and utilisation of solid-supported reagents. Research highlights involve the development of monolithic supports for performing industrially important process which including Wittig, Suzuki and Ozonolysis reactions

Thesis

The synthesis of immobilized reagents based on a polymerized triphenylphosphine scaffold for use in flow chemistry applications

Publications

Immobilized tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions under flow conditions

G.V. Ramaotsoa, I. Strydom, J.-L. Panayides, D.L. Riley Reaction Chemistry and Engineering 2019, 4, 372-382


An immobilized triphenylphosphine scaffold was prepared by precipitation polymerization and functionalized to afford a cost-effective source of solid-supported tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)-palladium(0). The catalyst was characterised and used to perform biphasic Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions using a packed-bed reactor under flow conditions. The approach afforded comparable yields to those obtained under batch conditions with a single pass through the packed-bed reactor (1 h vs. 18 h). The use of a recycling system was investigated on a model reaction and found to afford close to quantitative conversion within 3 hours.

*2019 Emerging Investigators issue*

Conferences

  1. 43rd SACI National Convention, Pretoria, South Africa, December 2018: Synthesis of an immobilised palladium catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reactions under flow conditions, V. Ramaotsoa*, I. Strydom, D.L. Riley, J-L. Panayides
  2. 2018 CSIR Emerging Researcher Symposium, Pretoria, South Africa, June 2018: Synthesis of monolith supported reagents with application to flow based API production, V. Ramaotsoa*, D.L. Riley, J.-L. Panayides
  3. SelectBio Flow Chemistry Europe 2017, Cambridge, UK, February 2017: Microsphere-supported reagents and their application to flow chemistry, J.-L. Panayides*, V. Ramaotsoa, D.L. Riley
  4. 2016 Frank Warren Conference, Rhodes, South Africa, December 2016: Progress Towards the Synthesis of Microsphere-Supported Catalysts, V. Ramaotsoa*, J.-L. Panayides, D. Riley