Superamphiphobic Silicon-Nanowire-Embedded Microsystem and In-Contact Flow Performance of Gas and Liquid Streams.

Gas and liquid streams are invariably separated either by a solid wall or by a membrane for heat or mass transfer between the gas and liquid streams. Without the separating wall, the gas phase is present as bubbles in liquid or, in a microsystem, as gas plugs between slugs of liquid. Continuous and direct contact between the two moving streams of gas and liquid is quite an efficient way of achieving heat or mass transfer between the two phases.

A pressure-tolerant polymer microfluidic device fabricated by the simultaneous solidification-bonding method and flash chemistry application.

Pressure-tolerant polymer-glass microfluidic reactors with excellent bonding strength have been fabricated by the simultaneous solidification-bonding (SSB) method, in which a viscous and reactive matrix polymer was cast on the glass substrate with pre-patterned wax as a sacrificial template. Elaborate interfacial chemistry between the matrix polymer and the functionalized glass surface was designed to achieve simultaneous solidification and chemical bonding under UV or/and mild thermal conditions (<200 °C with no pressure). Highly pressure-tolerant microchannels were obtained by complete removal of the liquid wax template at 80 °C.

Whole ceramic-like microreactors from inorganic polymers for high temperature or/and high pressure chemical syntheses.

Two types of whole ceramic-like microreactors were fabricated from inorganic polymers, polysilsesquioxane (POSS) and polyvinylsilazane (PVSZ), that were embedded with either perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) tube or polystyrene (PS) film templates, and subsequently the templates were removed by physical removal (PFA tube) or thermal decomposition (PS). A POSS derived ceramic-like microreactor with a 10 cm long serpentine channel was obtained by an additional "selective blocking of microchannel" step and subsequent annealing at 300 °C for 1 h, while a PVSZ derived ceramic-like microreactor with a 14 cm long channel was yielded by a co-firing process of the PVSZ-PS composite at 500 °C for 2 h that led to complete decomposition of the film template leaving a microchannel behind. The obtained whole ceramic-like microfluidic devices revealed excellent chemical and thermal stabilities in various solvents, and they were able to demonstrate unique chemical performance at high temperature or/and high pressure conditions such as Michaelis-Arbuzov rearrangement at 150-170 °C, Wolff-Kishner reduction at 200 °C, synthesis of super-paramagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles at 320 °C and isomerisation of allyloxybenzene to 2-allylphenol (250 °C and 400 psi).