Abstract

Transport Phenomena and Applications of Complex Fluids in Microreactors

Yuanhai Su, Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Chemical industry often involves fluids that change its phase states or physical properties significantly during reaction processes. The phase states variation can be easily observed when solid particles or gas bubbles are produced during liquid phase reaction processes, while physical properties such as viscosity are changed greatly and even the reaction mixture can be easily varied from Newtonian fluid to non-Newtonian fluid during polymerization processes. Although the hydrodynamics, transport phenomena and reaction performance of Newtonian fluid systems in microchannels or microreactors have been widely investigated, complex fluids and its applications in microreactors have not attracted much attention up to now. In this talk, we will focus on liquid phase reaction processes involving complex fluids, and its characteristics of transport phenomena and reaction performance in microreactors will be clearly shown. In particular, several application examples such as free radical polymerization, ionic liquid synthesis and nanocatalysis in microreactors will be thoroughly discussed, and the remaining challenges will be revealed.