A New Light on Isocyanide Synthesis

SusIsocyanide

The overarching goal of this proposal is to design new methods employing photo flow reactors for the synthesis of isocyanides at larger scale using bio-based scaffolds and visible light as sustainable energy resource.

SusIsocyanide is an ambitious project that aims for the sustainable synthesis of isocyanides by combining biobased feedstock, visible light and flow chemistry. The aim is to accomplish an economically viable and ecofriendly large scale synthesis of this fundamental and highly versatile building block that has already found widespread appreciation in academia, but suffers from underutilization in the pharma-, fine-chemicals and materials industry.

In accordance to the European Green Deal, the devised methodologies will provide an expedient synthetic platform to achieve the automatic synthesis of isocyanides, without the need of toxic and hazardous reagents and avoiding substantial waste production. This will constitute a groundbreaking improvement far beyond the current state-of-the-art, especially considering that the traditionally employed synthetic procedures towards isocyanides have hindered large-scale preparation and therefore industrial utilization.