Citation:
Martínez-Cisneros, C.S., Gómez-de-Pedro, S., Puyol, M., García-García, J., Alonso-Chamarro, J. (2012). Design, fabrication and characterization of micorreactors for high temperatures syntheses. Chemical Engineering Journal, 211-212, pp.432-441.
Sponsor:
This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)
through projects CTQ2009-12128 and the Consolider Ingenio 2010 project CSD2006 -12
and Catalonia Government through SGR 2009 -0323.
Project:
Gobierno de España. CTQ2009-12128 Gobierno de España. CSD2006
Keywords:
process intensification
,
microreactor
,
high temperature synthetic processes
,
quantum dots
,
on-line syntheses
,
thermal/microfluidic characterization
Microfluidic reactors offer many potential advantages in several research and industrial fields such as processes intensification, which includes a better reaction control (kinetics and thermodynamics), a high throughput and a safer operational environment (reMicrofluidic reactors offer many potential advantages in several research and industrial fields such as processes intensification, which includes a better reaction control (kinetics and thermodynamics), a high throughput and a safer operational environment (reduced manipulation of dangerous reagents and low sub-products generation). Nevertheless, scaling-down limitations appear concerning the materials used in the fabrication of microreactors for most of the liquid-phase reactions, since they usually require high temperatures (up to 300 °C), solvents and organic reagents. In this work, the development of a set of modular and monolithic microreactors based on the integration of microfluidics and a thermal platform (sensor/high-temperature heater) is proposed to perform high temperature reactions. The reliability and performance of both configurations were evaluated through an exhaustive characterization process regarding their thermal and microfluidic performance. Obtained results make the devices viable for their application in controlled and reproducible synthetic processes occurring at high temperatures such as the synthesis of quantum dots. The proposed microfluidic approach emerge as an engaging tool for processes intensification, since it provides better mass and temperature transfer than conventional methods with a reduction not only of the size and energy consumption, but also of by-products and reagents consumption.[+][-]