The Role of Selective Heating in the Microwave Activation of Heterogeneous Catmnsis Reactions Using a Continuous Microwave Reactor

This paper deals with the contribution of microwave heating to organic synthesis, especially to estenfication. When the reaction is conducted in a heterogeneous medium and under microwave heating, the reaction rate increases compared to classical heating under the same conditions. This is due to selective heating of the catalyst particles creating hot spots, resulting in an increased reaction rate. The temperature of the reactive site was calculated to be 9–18 K above the bulk temperature. A new continuous flow microwave reactor has been tested in order to show the role of selective heating of the catalyst in the activation of organic reactions under microwave heating.