Project description
Development of innovative microchemical reactors
Microchemical systems are prone to channel clogging when managing flows containing particulate matter, limiting their applications in chemical engineering research. The ERC-funded MicroParticleControl project aims to overcome clogging issues in microfluidic devices and to design systems for solid material synthesis according to size, purity, and morphology specifications. The goal is to devise an innovative strategy for handling particulate matter inside the reactor, based on whether it is an insoluble by-product or the target compound. By utilising different ultrasound application strategies, nucleation sites will be introduced to control particle formation within the microfluidic device. The project will provide fundamental insight into the particle formation process, ultimately leading to the development of innovative microfluidic reactor designs.
Objective
Despite the many advantages of microchemical systems and their successful applications in chemical
engineering research, one major drawback greatly limiting their use is their susceptibility to channel clogging
for flows containing particulate matter. Hence, the aim of the proposed research is to overcome the challenge
of clogging in microfluidic devices and to design microfluidic systems that can tolerate particulate matter
and synthesize solid materials according to their specifications (e.g. size, purity, morphology). To reach this
goal, we apply a combined experimental and theoretical approach, in which the experimental results will lead
to model development reflecting the particle formation and interaction kinetics and their coupling to the
hydrodynamics. The novel concept of the proposal is to devise engineering strategies to handle the
particulate matter inside the reactor depending on if the solid material is i) an unwanted and insoluble by-product
of a reaction, or ii) the target compound (e.g. nanoparticle synthesis or crystallization of organic
molecules). Depending on the case we will design different ultrasound application strategies and introduce
nucleation sites to control the location of particle formation within the microchannel. This project will
provide fundamental insight into the physico-chemical phenomena that result in particle formation, growth
and agglomeration processes in continuous flow microdevices, and will provide a theoretical tool for the
prediction of the dynamics of particle-particle, particle-wall and particle-fluid interactions, leading to
innovative microreactor designs.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- engineering and technologychemical engineering
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacousticsultrasound
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Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
3000 Leuven
Belgium