Monitoring biphasic mixtures in continuous flow systems

Chemical reactions carried out in liquid-liquid immiscible systems are referred to as emulsions or biphasic reaction. They constitute an important part of chemical reaction, from synthesis of some compounds to purification processes. As the industry moves towards a more extensive use of continuous flow processes, a lot of biphasic reactions are now performed within flow reactors. For this type of reactors, real time quantitative and qualitative analysis are crucial for quality control but there is a lack of systems suitable for real time monitoring of biphasic flow systems, hence the need for my research. Initial work included the establishment of a model system of solvents and analyte, cyclohexane/water and benzyl alcohol respectively. This system was analysed by UV, IR and Raman in each phase separately in order to obtain calibration plots for each instrument in both solvent. With this, detection limits were calculated: they range from 4.86 to 8.85 mg/L, which would suit the monitoring a reactions currently reported in the literature.