Continuous-flow synthesis of the naphthalimide derivatives for medical and engineering applications

Microfluidic technologies bring new tools for a large number of applications in chemistry, biology, and medicine. In this study, we for the first time demonstrated the systematic synthesis and optimisation of naphthalimide derivatives using microfluidic techniques. This approach was applied to a wide range of naphthalimide dyes. A detailed comparison of microfluidic and batch methods for the synthesis of fluorescent markers was performed. The results showed that microfluidic technologies in continuous mode improved the conversion of starting compounds and increased the yield of target compounds. The developed fluorescent markers exhibit excellent optical properties after incorporation into polymers. Possible applications have been demonstrated for radical copolymerization reactions for the synthesis of acrylic acid-based salt deposition inhibitors, and N-acylation reactions in PLGA to obtain fluorescent nanoparticles for drug delivery.