Three-phase microfluidic reactor networks - Design, modeling and application to scaled-out nanoparticle-catalyzed hydrogenations with online catalyst recovery and recycle

We present a design framework for the robust, self-regulating long-term operation of parallelized multiphase microfluidic reactor networks without the use of any active flow control elements. A fluidic circuit-based design scheme is developed for the feed manifolds in a general multiphase microfluidic reactor network where an inline, fluidic capacitance element allows autonomous damping of periodic and aperiodic flow disturbances, in combination with a fluidic resistance-based strategy for even flow distribution into the network. A dynamic model for the fluidic capacitance element is derived, numerically solved and validated with experiments on model time varying feed flows. This model sheds new light on important network-level design considerations for stable long-term operation. Finally, our design scheme is applied to present the first demonstration of a robust eight-fold parallelized three-phase segmented-flow reactor network for platinum nanoparticle-catalyzed hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, a model substrate, at an approximately constant substrate conversion of ∼80% under ambient conditions, with continuous online recovery and recycle of the colloidal catalyst phase over five hours of operation.