Controllable synthesis of nanocrystals in droplet reactors

Abstract

In recent years, a broad range of nanocrystals have been synthesized in droplet-based microfluidic reactors which provide obvious advantages, such as accurate manipulation, better reproducibility and reliable automation. In this review, we initially introduce general concepts of droplet reactors followed by discussions of their main functional regions including droplet generation, mixing of reactants, reaction controlling, in situ monitoring, and reaction quenching. Subsequently, the enhanced mass and heat transport properties are discussed. Next, we focus on research frontiers including sequential multistep synthesis, intelligent synthesis, reliable scale-up synthesis, and interfacial synthesis. Finally, we end with an outlook on droplet reactors, especially highlighting some aspects such as large-scale production, the integrated process of synthesis and post-synthetic treatments, automated droplet reactors with in situ monitoring and optimizing algorithms, and rapidly developing strategies for interfacial synthesis.

Continuous Synthesis of Nanocrystals via Flow Chemistry Technology

“…Please notice that the value of Re was much lower than the transition area of laminar flow to turbulent flow in common pipes (Re: 2000–4000), which means turbulent flow is not difficult to create in the microspace. However, the homogenous flow mixing was relatively less used to synthesize nanocrystals comparing to the segment flow,10a,26 which might be because of high flow rate and fast reactant consumption. Although this may increase difficulties and cost for general lab research, working at a high flow rate is beneficial for increasing the productivity, which is important for scaling‐up.…”

Multistage Microfluidic Platform for the Continuous Synthesis of III–V Core/Shell Quantum Dots

“…Over the past decade, microfluidic technology has been widely applied to nanocrystal synthesis and reaction optimization, characterization of reaction kinetics, purification and surface modification . Compared to traditional batch‐based processes, flow‐based configurations can improve mass and heat transfer and precisely control reaction parameters, which is ideal for large‐scale nanomanufacturing .…”

Microfluidic Generation of Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications

“…Owing to the homogeneous reaction environment, the production efficiency and monodispersity of generated materials from microfluidics are much higher than those from conventional methods . In addition, through designing customized microchannels, introducing specific physicochemical processes and incorporating functional agents, the structures and functions of the NMs are extremely flexible . Therefore, microfluidics offers an excellent platform for synthesizing libraries of NMs with high quality, significantly accelerating the development and clinical translation of nanomedicines.…”