Flow invariant droplet formation for stable parallel microreactors

Carson T. Riche, Emily J. Roberts, Malancha Gupta, Richard L. Brutchey () and Noah Malmstadt ()
Additional contact information
Carson T. Riche: University of Southern California
Emily J. Roberts: University of Southern California
Malancha Gupta: University of Southern California
Richard L. Brutchey: University of Southern California
Noah Malmstadt: University of Southern California

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract The translation of batch chemistries onto continuous flow platforms requires addressing the issues of consistent fluidic behaviour, channel fouling and high-throughput processing. Droplet microfluidic technologies reduce channel fouling and provide an improved level of control over heat and mass transfer to control reaction kinetics. However, in conventional geometries, the droplet size is sensitive to changes in flow rates. Here we report a three-dimensional droplet generating device that exhibits flow invariant behaviour and is robust to fluctuations in flow rate. In addition, the droplet generator is capable of producing droplet volumes spanning four orders of magnitude. We apply this device in a parallel network to synthesize platinum nanoparticles using an ionic liquid solvent, demonstrate reproducible synthesis after recycling the ionic liquid, and double the reaction yield compared with an analogous batch synthesis.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10780 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10780

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10780

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().