Despite many efforts on the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials with uniform structure and narrow size distribution in a fast and continuous way, it is still a critical challenge in the chemistry research community due to the uncontrollable mass and heat transfer and the harsh experimental conditions of high temperature and pressure. Here we report a droplet- and ionic liquid-assisted microfluidic (DIM) synthesis method, which takes full advantage of both ionic liquids and droplet-assisted microreaction systems, for an ultrafast, mild, and continuous synthesis of various inorganic nanomaterials that takes only tens of minutes rather than days that are usually needed to synthesize. In particular, unaccommodating inorganic nanomaterials that are difficult to produce, such as nanoporous ZSM-5, γ-AlOOH, and β-FeOOH nanorods, were synthesized in only "20 minutes" of reaction time even with simple instrument. The DIM method delineated herein would offer a breakthrough synthetic approach for functional but unaccommodating inorganic nanomaterials in a continuous and mild manner.

Well-defined diblock copolymers were synthesized via an exothermic RAFT route by a droplet microfluidic process using a solvent-resistant and thermally stable fluoropolymer microreactor fabricated by a non-lithographic embedded template method. The resulting polymers were compared to products obtained from continuous flow capillary reactor and conventional bulk synthesis. The droplet based microreactor demonstrated superior molecular weight distribution control by synthesizing a higher molecular weight product with higher conversion and narrow polydispersity in a much shorter reaction time. The high quality of the as-synthesized block copolymer PMMA-b-PS led to a generation of micelles with a narrow size distribution that could be used as a template for well-ordered mesoporous silica with regular frameworks and high surface areas.

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