UvA

The thesis focuses on the development of continuous flow technology to empower photochemistry for the production of (fine) chemicals and pharmaceuticals, specifically in aspects of sustainability, scalability, and automation. It is organized into 7 chapters and comprises three main lines of research. Various reactor designs (ultrasound mini-reactor, packed bed reactors, oscillatory microreactors) for photochemistry on different scales are explored, and they are applied to relevant heter- (TiO₂ and mpg-CNx) and homogeneous (TBADT) photochemical transformations. A photoreactor equipped with a high-power light source (144 W) was developed to scale up the decatungstate-mediated C(sp³)-H amination to a scale of kg/day and the role of further product purification and catalyst recovery with organic solvent membranes was explored. Ultimately a step towards automation in flow and control using Bayesian optimization is provided to reduce operator time and accelerate the discovery of new chemistry.