A versatile non-fouling multi-step flow reactor platform: demonstration for partial oxidation synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

In the last decade flow reactors for material synthesis were firmly established, demonstrating advantageous operating conditions, reproducible and scalable production via continuous operation, as well as high-throughput screening of synthetic...

Non-fouling flow reactors for nanomaterial synthesis

“…[46][47][48][49] Fig. 1 Flow reactors that fouled during the synthesis of (a) silver, 35 (b) lipid, 36 (c) iron oxide, 37 (d) palladium, 18 (reproduced from ref.…”

“…[46][47][48][49] Fig. 1 Flow reactors that fouled during the synthesis of (a) silver, 35 (b) lipid, 36 (c) iron oxide, 37 (d) palladium, 18 (reproduced from ref. To better distinguish the fouling origin and consequences for flow reactors, we distinguish between local (small axial reactor fraction affected), or traversed (significant axial reactor fraction affected), and fouling affecting the surface only (depositions at the reactor wall not extending radially into the channel) or being constrictive (depositions extending from the reactor wall reducing the channel cross section), see Fig.…”

“…10e). 37 Its reactor elements were machined from highly hydrophobic plastic for robust segmentation, the droplet generator had a movable nozzle to control the droplet spacing and all elements were made transparent for visual inspection. The platform was showcased for a multistep iron oxide nanoparticle synthesis involving two reagent addition steps and a heating step (to 70 °C) using heptane as continuous liquid phase.…”

“…Fig.1Flow reactors that fouled during the synthesis of (a) silver,35 (b) lipid,36 (c) iron oxide,37 (d) palladium,18 (reproduced from ref.18 and 35-37 with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry, © 2017, 2015, 2021 & 2023) and (e and f) gold nanoparticles (reproduced from ref. 38 and 39 with permission from Elsevier, © 2022 & 2018).…”

Autonomous nanomanufacturing of lead-free metal halide perovskite nanocrystals using a self-driving fluidic lab

“…Compared to batch reactors, droplet-based microfluidic synthesis strategies have been demonstrated as a reliable reactor of choice for high-throughput screening, mechanistic studies, and continuous production of colloidal NCs, including metal oxide, silver, and gold NCs, as well as II-VI, III-V, and Pb-based MHP NCs. [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] The continuous nature of microfluidic reactors along with their modularity, facile automation, and integration with multimodal in situ characterization tools (e.g., spectroscopy) 28,40,41 offer an exciting avenue to accelerate parameter space and synthesis-property relationship mapping of NCs through integration with data science tools in a closed-loop format. Such integration of an automated microfluidic reactor with machine learning (ML)-assisted process modelling and experiment-selection results in establishment of self-driving fluidic labs (SDFLs).…”