Continuous hydrogenation of halogenated nitroaromatic compounds in a micropacked bed reactor

The selective hydrogenation of halogenated nitroaromatic compounds is of great importance in the fine chemical industry. However, the hydrogenation reactions in commonly utilized batch reactors suffer from the undesired dehalogenation, resulting in higher requirement for subsequent separation processes and severe corrosion to industrial fatalities. In this work, a H-flow system with the micropacked bed reactor was developed for the selective hydrogenation of halogenated nitroaromatic compounds and the reduction of 3,4-dichloronitrobenzene was selected as the model reaction. With the optimal hydrogenation conditions, the yield of 3,4-dichloroaniline was obtained as high as 99.8% under mild conditions. With this strategy this flow system was successfully employed to the reduction of other chlorinated nitroaromatics also demonstrating low dehalogenation. The H-flow system enables negligible dehalogenation and remarkable yield of target product with higher efficiency and lower energy cost compared with the batch reactor.