Kinetics of Multicomponent Polymerization Reaction Studied in a Microfluidic Format

Abstract

We report a high-throughput study of the kinetics of a multicomponent polymerization reaction in a microfluidic reactor integrated with in situ attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The technique was used to study the kinetics of an exemplary free-radical polymerization reaction of N-isopropylacrylamide, which was initiated by ammonium persulfate in the presence of the accelerator N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine in water. By monitoring the rate of disappearance of the monomer double bonds, we determined the effects of the concentration of the monomer, initiator, and accelerator on the rate of polymerization and the effect of the pH of the reaction system on the reaction kinetics. This work opens the way for the kinetic studies of complex polymer systems in a microfluidic format.

Microfluidic Strategies for Design and Assembly of Microfibers and Nanofibers with Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Applications

“…Free‐radical polymerization methods are powerful fabrication tools that allow for the rapid and facile generation of solid materials using microchannels. Free‐radical reactions have been used within microchannels to produce an array of micro particles, and the different free‐radical polymerization mechanisms utilized are highly varied, including ammonium persulfate initiated, reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), copper‐mediated controlled radical, and photoinitiated polymerizations . Correspondingly, free‐radical reactions have been used in microchannels to produce fibers using various materials and chemistries, with recent efforts primarily focused on photoinitiated polymerization and cross‐linking.…”

Utilisation of micro- and nanoscaled materials in microfluidic analytical devices

“…Also, low fabrication cost, in some cases biocompatibility, the possibility of miniaturisation, reduced volume of waste, easy customisation and transportation are other advantages. Thanks to these properties allowing microchannels to be practical handy devices, microfluidic chips may be applied in clinical diagnostics, especially in point-of-care testing [2,9,10], environment monitoring [11][12][13], food, agriculture and biosystems industries [14][15][16] or biochemical kinetic studies [17][18][19]. Although microchannels have numerous advantages and show a real potential for routine laboratory or in situ applications as illustrated in this review, their success within the commercial sphere is still minimal.…”

Microfluidic Generation of Amino-Functionalized Hydrogel Microbeads Capable of On-Bead Bioassay

“…For the production of monodisperse microbeads, microfluidics has been used over the past decade. Monodisperse microbeads can be synthesized by emulsifying the monomer mixture in the continuous phase to form droplets of pre-polymerized monomers followed by polymerizing the monomer in the droplet by physicochemical or photochemical methods [13,14,15]. The droplet polymerization can be easily performed by using a microfluidic chip with well-defined channel widths and flow rates of laminar fluids.…”