Cooking in one pot – Adding Multiple Component Reactions (MCR) to your Synthesis

Wouldn’t it be great to just perform all your reactions in one reactor, flask, vessel, etc ?  I remember when I was working on developing processes how I got some satisfaction out of telescoping reactions, taking the product from one reaction into the next without a preparative workup, crystallization or some sort of purification.  I think my record was 3 consecutive reactions in one flask using one reagent after another.   That could be some savings in the solvent used, the amount of work taken.  At bench-scale, this is really trivial, but it could really be helpful on pilot-plant and manufacturing scale.

I found this review in Green Chemistry, namely, “Multicomponent reactions: advanced tools for sustainable organic synthesis”, Răzvan C. Cioc, Eelco Ruijter* and Romano V. A. Orru, Green Chem., 2014, 16, 2958.  It seems appropriate to talk about “greener” chemical synthesis after introducing the topic covered a few weeks ago, about…