Recent advances in synthetic micro reaction technology

Abstract

Although in its infancy, the field of micro reaction technology is growing rapidly, with many research groups investigating the practical advantages associated with reaction miniaturisation. With this in mind, the following Feature Article aims to provide an overview of the progress made in the past decade, paying particular attention to the field of synthetic organic chemistry.

Design and additive manufacture for flow chemistry

“…1 In recent decades, technological advances have opened up a field of chemistry known as flow chemistry, based around the continuous flow of reagents through chemical reactors. 2 These reactors typically come in the form of micron-sized channels patterned into the surface of a glass or polymer chip (often referred to as "Lab-on-a-Chip"), 3 or more simply as lengths of tubing typically made from stainless steel, or inert polymers such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), or polyetheretherketone (PEEK).…”

“…This would be a consequence of less heat leakage into the powder bed, leading to less unwanted powder sintering. To determine the potential build resolution of the new SLM, a series of short channels of smaller channel diameters than had been previously attempted (SLM parts [1][2][3][4][5] were built. These helical channels would range in internal channel diameter from 1 -2 mm.…”

Microfluidic reactors for visible-light photocatalytic water purification assisted with thermolysis

“…7,34 Based on these understandings, a number of reactors have been developed using microfluidic structures. For example, microchannels have been extensively used as the reaction chamber for photocatalysis, [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] the surface-area-to-volume ratio is typically in the range of 10 000-300 000 m 2 /m 3 , 21,22,26 at least two orders of magnitude larger than the typical value of 600 m 2 /m 3 in the bulk reactors. [35][36][37] For this reason, significant enhancement of the reaction rate has been observed in the microchannel reactors as compared to the bulk reactors.…”

“…1932-1058/2014/8(5)/054122/10/$30.00 V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC 8, 054122-1 transfer, [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] efficient photon transfer, 6,7,33,34 short reaction time, 6,7,[21][22][23][24][25][26]34 and self-refreshing of reaction surface by running flow (and thus long photocatalyst durability). 7,34 Based on these understandings, a number of reactors have been developed using microfluidic structures.…”

“…[35][36][37] For this reason, significant enhancement of the reaction rate has been observed in the microchannel reactors as compared to the bulk reactors. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Recently, our group has presented an improved design-planar microreactor. 6,34 Its main body is a rectangular reaction chamber composed of a cover, a substrate, and a thin spacer (typically 100 lm-thick).…”