Fabrication of Powder-based Ceramic Micro-burners

Miniaturization of chemical system has attracted tremendous interests in chemistry and biology due to many advantages such as enhancement in heat/mass transfer rates, reduction in expensive reagents and hazardous wastes, and facilitation of massive parallelization in reaction/catalyst screening and optimization Fabrication of microchemical systems (μCSs) has matured around materials such as silicon, glass and polymers, which are not particularly suitable for harsh environment such as high pressure, high temperature, and corrosive reactants. The main objective of this paper is to introduce a new ceramic-based fabrication framework for such harsh environment. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the new technique by constructing a micro-burner, which can be used as on-chip heater or sensor. The proposed technique overcomes one major roadblock in fabrication of ceramic-based μCSs. The unreliable joining and assembling of simple ceramic components are eliminated by utilizing a fugitive phase machined into an intricate shape of an internal combustion chamber and channels. The main fabrication strategy is to use the advantage of powder, offering the fluidity to flow into a complex cavity or around the solid phase as well as the rigidity to remove the undesirable sections. The paper demonstrates the unique method of fabricating a micro-burner that can sustain an oxy-hydrogen flame for an extensive period and under cyclic operations.