Evaluation of Reaction Between 2,4-Thiazolidinedione and P-Methoxybenzaldehyde in Microreactors for Production of Drugs for Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

The use of microreactors in chemical and pharmaceutical industries allow a series of advantages due to their reduced sizes regarding conventional batch reactors. In the present paper the transposition of the reaction between 2,4-Thiazolidinedione with p-Methoxybenzaldehyde, generating the compound with potential biological action against diabetes mellitus type II, from batch to a continuous capillary microreactor was carried out. The microdevice performance was evaluated experimentally and numerically by Computational Fluid Dynamics. The efficiency and viability of microreactors usage for the intermediate pharmaceutical active production was assessed. The optimized operating conditions were obtained for the batch reactor (processing time) and microreactor (residence time), the promoter base selection and optimal concentration was also performed, in order to maximize reactants conversion and reaction yield. Considering the acquired data, computational fluid dynamic simulations were carried out, allowing obtaining a computational methodology to be used for a fast increment of production from microreactor to industrial demand.