Continuously running syntheses in microstructured reactors offers novel ways to intensify conventional chemical processes. An outstanding advantage of microreaction technology is the high surface-to-volume-ratio which enables intensive mixing phenomena as well as high mass and heat transfer rates. Thus, microstructured reactors may be a suitable means to improve multiphase reactions by increasing the interfacial area and the intensification of internal mixing. This improvement in reaction performances may lead to reduced environmental burdens of the process under consideration. The method of simplified life cycle assessment (SLCA) is a suitable tool to evaluate the environmental burdens caused by chemical processes. It has been applied already in research and development to identify the key parameters for a deliberate green process design of two biphasic reactions, the esterification of phenol and benzoyl chloride resulting in phenyl benzoate and the synthesis of one of the corresponding phase transfer catalysts, [BMIM]Cl. Further, SLCA is complemented by a simple cost estimation to investigate the main cost drivers relevant for possible industrial application of the syntheses investigated.
The ability to control and manipulate discrete fluid droplets by magnetic fields offers new opportunities in microfluidics. A surfactant-free and easy to realize technique for the continuous generation of double emulsion droplets, composed of an organic solvent and a paramagnetic ionic liquid, is applied. The inner phase of the emulsion droplet consists of imidazolium-based ionic liquids with either iron, manganese, nickel or dysprosium containing anions which provide paramagnetic behaviour. The double emulsion droplets are dispersed in a continuous phase of FC-40. All substances - the organic phase, the paramagnetic ionic liquid and the continuous phase -are immiscible. The magnetic properties of ionic liquids allow, through the influence of external magnetic fields, the manipulation of individual emulsion droplets such as capture and release, rotation and distortion. Arrays of magnets allow a coalescence of emulsion droplets and their subsequent mixing by flowing through an alternating permanent magnetic field. In addition, the double emulsion droplets can be split and reunified, or continuously separated into their original phases.
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