Development of Flow Processes for the Sustainable Synthesis of New Sugar-Based Surfactants

Surfactants are amphiphilic organic compounds widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, and personal care industries thanks to their physicochemical properties and functional properties. However, traditional chemical synthesis of sugar-based surfactants typically requires harsh reaction conditions (hazardous solvents, high temperature, the use of reducing agents) resulting in high energy consumption, formation of undesirable by-products, and low regioselectivity. In this context, we designed and synthetized a series of bio-based surfactants by exploiting enabling technologies as flow chemistry and (chemo)enzymatic catalysis trying to increase the sustainability and the scalability of the whole process. We focused on the production of glucose-based amines through a continuous reductive amination reaction, exploiting amines that can be obtained from the corresponding natural fatty acids. These key intermediates were used as starting compounds for the synthesis of a sugar-fatty acid amide analogue of the commercially available GlucoPure®, and a series of glucamides as new non-ionic potential surfactants.