Engineering Functional Materials for Catalytic Smart Microreactors
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
There has been tremendous recent progress in manufacturing very small chemical reactors with channels of the order of micrometres in size. These microreactors allow rapid evaluation of new chemical reactions compared with larger units. The current methods of manufacturing of such reactors are based on expensive and polluting electronics manufacturing techniques. This project will develop faster, cheaper and multifunctional devices with much wider range of potential application. This project involves combining new fabrication methods with recently developed catalysts to provide novel and efficient microreactors. It is a blend of materials science, engineering and chemistry involving mechanical and materials engineers (Liverpool), chemists and surface scientists (Durham) and polymer and organic chemists and chemical engineers (Bath). The complementary expertise of these groups is vital to the success of the programme.The Liverpool group in the first stage of the project will use their experience in Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Digital Light Processing (DLP) to fabricate novel reactors containing channels < 100 microns in size for reactant and heat exchange fluids in a single unit. These will be evaluated as potential industrial reactors using novel catalysts developed at Bath involving magnetic nanoparticles. In the second stage, the reactant channels will be functionalised using plasma techniques at Durham and converted to catalytically active species using chemistry developed at Bath. A series of test reactions will be performed and the performance analysed by a number of methods. These will require the development of in-situ methods, in order to optimise the design of the reactors and to illustrate the potential benefits to the materials, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The end result will be a multifunctional reactor with integrated analytics optimised for selected chemical reactions of immediate relevance to the fine chemicals industries.
Publications
Clare A
(2007)
Selective laser melting of high aspect ratio 3D nickel-titanium structures two way trained for MEMS applications
in International Journal of Mechanics and Materials in Design
Clare A
(2008)
Selective laser sintering of barium titanate-polymer composite films
in Journal of Materials Science
Chalker P
(2009)
Rapid Prototyping Methodologies for Ceramic Micro Components
in Solid State Phenomena
Wong M
(2009)
Pressure Loss and Heat Transfer Through Heat Sinks Produced by Selective Laser Melting
in Heat Transfer Engineering
Walker J
(2009)
Fabrication of Fe-Cr-Al Oxide Dispersion Strengthened PM2000 Alloy Using Selective Laser Melting
in Advanced Engineering Materials
Description | We have developed a range in inkjet inks to produce conductive tracks for electronic devices, particularly solar cell interconnects. The inks we have produced offer very high performance indeed in our experiments we have shown that they are amongst the highest performing materials available |
Exploitation Route | We envisage that the materials that we have developed will soon become commercially available for use in industry. In fact we are positively developing this as an option by protecting the IP that we have invented with a partner company. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Healthcare |
Description | MCP Equipment |
Organisation | MCP Equipment |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |