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.
A continuous-flow microreactor was used to synthetize II-VI semiconductor quantum dots (CdSe). In order to improve the size distribution of the nanoparticles, the synthesis was carried out in a two-step procedure. A seed solution was obtained in a separate nucleation step, followed by a controllable growth step. Quantum dots that are synthesized with the two-step method show a much narrower size distribution in comparison to those obtained in a conventional batch synthesis.
Fast mixing is essential for many microfluidic applications, especially for flow at low Reynolds numbers. A capillary tubein-tube coaxial flow setup in combination with a glass microreactor was used to produce immiscible multiphase segments. These double emulsion segments are composed of an organic solvent as the shell (outer) phase and a completely fluorinated liquid (Fluorinert® FC-40) as the core (inner) phase. Due to the higher density of the core droplets, they are responsive to changing their position to the force of gravity (g-force). By gently shaking or jiggling the reactor, the core drop flows very fast in the direction of the g-field without leaving the shell organic phase segment. Furthermore, by shaking or jiggling the reactor, the inner droplet moves along the phase boundary of the shell segment and continuous phase. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations show an enhancement of the internal circulations, i.e., causing an exceptional mixing inside of the shell segment. For reactions which are limited by mass transfer, where the conversion significantly increases with improved mixing, these recirculation zones are decisive because they also accelerate the mixing process. With a common phase-transfer catalytic (PTC) etherification of phenol with dimethyl sulphate, a remarkable increase of yield (85% gas chromatography [GC]) could be achieved by applying active mixing within a segment in continuous flow.
The application of microfluidics in organic chemistry is a valuable tool to access new synthesis pathways and to break limitations set by traditional batch chemistry. In the past, the majority of research focused on solving problems associated with individual reactions. It is necessary to advance the field by incorporating flow chemistry in longer multistep syntheses to open more direct paths towards complicated compounds. Several strategies were developed to meet the demands of a four‐step synthesis, which includes biphasic nitrations, gaseous substrates, and very fast reactions on multifunctional molecules. A unique micro flow setup was applied in each reaction to meet its specific requirements.
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