Utilizing Shear Reactor Technology for Optimizing the Ozonolysis of Alkenes Reaction

Presenter: Ajay Ryerson (Chemistry)

Mentor: David Tyler

Facilitator: Sheri Donahoe

Ozone is a great oxidizing agent because its byproducts are water and oxygen. Current ozonolysis processes are either slow or dangerous for large scale reactions though. The use of flow reactors is a new technology that solves these problems. We have developed a process for mixing ozone, water and an organic phase together to get our desired material out with little work-up or purification needed. We utilize the Sythetron shear reactor developed by Kinetichem to achieve this mixing. Current yields are comparable to those found in the scientific literature, but results from several experiments have shown that decreasing the volume of gas in the reaction will increase yields. We are very optimistic that once we have an ozone generator that can produce concentrated ozone we will be able a produce material at rates unprecedented in the literature, all while being easier to work‐up than any oxidative process to date.