A Modular Millifluidic Platform for the Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Control over Dissolved Gas and Flow Configuration
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Materials
2.2. Particle Synthesis
- Reactor System 1: this configuration comprised a liquid–liquid segmented flow reactor, where the organic phase (heptane) wets the reactor wall and segments the aqueous stream. A segmented flow pattern was achieved (size of slugs/droplets ~4 mm) by mixing the streams containing the iron precursor with the base solution and the organic stream in a polyether ether ketone (PEEK) cross junction (1 mm ID, Upchurch Scientific, Oak Harbor, WA, USA). The flow rate of the organic stream was set to 1 mL/min, while equal flow rates of 0.5 mL/min were used for the iron precursor and the base solutions. In this system, the gas–liquid contactor was not used, as the solutions were preventively bubbled with (inert gas). A schematic of the setup is shown in Figure 1b.
- Reactor System 2: this configuration comprised the tube-in-tube gas–liquid contactor upstream of the reaction coil. In the tube-in-tube contactor, an organic stream (heptane) was saturated with . The heptane stream was used to segment the aqueous one before entering the reactor. The two water solutions (base and iron precursor) were mixed and segmented in a PEEK cross junction (1 mm ID, Upchurch Scientific, Oak Harbor, WA, USA). The flow rate of the organic stream was set to 1 mL/min, while equal flow rates of 0.5 mL/min were used for the iron precursor and the base solutions. A schematic of the setup is shown in Figure 1c.
- Reactor System 3: this configuration consisted of a single-phase reactor where the two reactant streams containing the iron precursor and the base were mixed in a PEEK T-junction (1 mm ID, Upchurch Scientific, Oak Harbor, WA, USA) before entering the reaction stage. The overall flow rate was set to 2 mL/min, and each aqueous stream was pumped at 1 mL/min. In this case, the gas–liquid contactor was not used, as the solutions were preventively bubbled with (inert gas). A schematic of the setup is shown in Figure 1d.
- Reactor System 4: this configuration consisted of a single-phase reactor. Here the base solution passed through the tube-in-tube contactor at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, where it was saturated with , and then mixed with the solution of iron precursor (1.5 mL/min). The two solutions were mixed in a PEEK T-junction (1 mm ID, Upchurch Scientific, Oak Harbor, WA, USA) before entering the reaction stage. A schematic of the setup is shown in Figure 1e.
2.3. Reactor Scale Up
2.4. Particle Characterization
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Two-Phase Flow Reactor Systems
3.2. Single-Phase Flow Reactor Systems
3.3. Magnetic and Heating Properties of the Nanoparticles
3.4. Scaled-up Reactor System
4. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Reactor System | Particle Size (nm) | Saturation Magnetization () | SAR () | ILP () |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 (two-phase flow with -saturated heptane) | 501 * 765 ** | 2.7 * 2.65 ** | ||
3 (single-phase flow with solutions preventively bubble with ) | 79 | 220 * 395 ** | 1.25 * 1.3 ** | |
4 (single-phase flow with CO-saturated base solution) | 80 | 215 * 382 ** | 1.2 * 1.3 ** |
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Panariello, L.; Wu, G.; Besenhard, M.O.; Loizou, K.; Storozhuk, L.; Thanh, N.T.K.; Gavriilidis, A. A Modular Millifluidic Platform for the Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Control over Dissolved Gas and Flow Configuration. Materials 2020, 13, 1019. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13041019
Panariello L, Wu G, Besenhard MO, Loizou K, Storozhuk L, Thanh NTK, Gavriilidis A. A Modular Millifluidic Platform for the Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Control over Dissolved Gas and Flow Configuration. Materials. 2020; 13(4):1019. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13041019
Chicago/Turabian StylePanariello, Luca, Gaowei Wu, Maximilian O. Besenhard, Katerina Loizou, Liudmyla Storozhuk, Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, and Asterios Gavriilidis. 2020. "A Modular Millifluidic Platform for the Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Control over Dissolved Gas and Flow Configuration" Materials 13, no. 4: 1019. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13041019