Laser micro-milling of microchannel on copper sheet as catalyst support used in microreactor for hydrogen production

• We proposed the laser micro-milling technique to fabricate the microchannel sheet.
• Effects of processing parameters on surface profile of microchannel were investigated.
• Microchannel sheet was used to conduct methanol steam reforming reaction.
• Better reaction performance for hydrogen production in microchannels was obtained.

Microchannel structure as catalyst support has been widely used to construct numerous microreactors for hydrogen production. In this work, the laser micro-milling technique was introduced into the fabrication process of microchannels with different geometry and dimensions. The effects of varying scanning speed, laser output power and number of scans on the surface morphology and geometrical dimension of microchannels have been investigated based on SEM observations. It is found that the change of scanning speed and laser output power significantly affected the surface morphology of microchannel. Moreover, the depth of microchannel was increased when the laser output power and number of scans were increased. Subsequently, the microchannels on copper sheet fabricated by the laser micro-milling technique were used as catalyst support to conduct the methanol steam reforming reaction. The better reaction performance of methanol steam reforming in microchannels indicates that laser micro-milling process is probably suitable to fabricate the microchannel reactor for the commercial application.

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