Microreactor-Assisted Nanomaterial DepositionTM process combines the merits of microreaction technology and solution phase synthesis of nanomaterials. This technique uses continuous flow microreactors for the synthesis and deposition of nanomaterials. In synthesis, microreactor technology offers large surface-area-to-volume ratios within microchannel structures to accelerate heat and mass transport. This accelerated transport allows for rapid changes in reaction temperatures and concentrations leading to more uniform heating and mixing in the deposition process. The possibility of synthesizing nanomaterials in the required volumes at the point-of-application eliminates the need to store and transport potentially hazardous materials, while providing new opportunities for tailoring novel nanostructures and nanoshaped features. MANDTM processes control the heat transfer, mass transfer and reaction kinetics using well defined microstructures of the active unit reactor cell that can be replicated to produce higher chemical production volumes. This important feature opens a promising avenue in developing scalable nanomanufacturing.
In this talk, I will discuss our progress in using microreactors to dispense reactant streams directly onto moving or stationary substrates to yield nanostructured thin films. Results-to-date demonstrate the possibility to control the reacting flux including small intermediate-reaction molecules, macromolecules, nanoclusters, nanoparticles and structured assemble of nanoparticles directly after synthesis.