Analysis of a microreactor for synthesizing nanocrystals by computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

A microreactor designed to synthesize nanocrystals was built applying laser pulses with duration of femtoseconds in a quartz board. This precise machining technology allowed dimensioning the microchip cross section as a trapezoidal shape with base lengths of 120 μm and 200 μm and depth of 150 μm. The microchip is comprised of four inlets for reactants, a mixing section with 40 curves after the inlet section to ensure proper mixing of the species and 22 serpentine channels, with 22,000 μm length each, to allow crystal growth. Flow field throughout the microchip was investigated by computational fluid dynamics considering inlet flow rates between 12.5 and 2000 μL min-1. Hexahedral meshes were used to discretize the geometry as its cross section is uniform and to reduce the total number of elements. Advection terms were solved by the high resolution scheme. Numerical solutions were converged when the maximum residual value was less than 10-4 and the domain imbalance was less than 1%. Flow throughout the channels is laminar as the maximum Reynolds number observed is 850. The tridimensional velocity profile is a paraboloid whose vertex is influence by the centrifugal force: at the curved sections, such force accelerates flow towards the outer part of the channels, moving the maximum velocity point to this zone. The centrifugal force also creates secondary flows. These structures enhance mixing in the direction perpendicular to the main flow and behave like turbulent flows in macroscopic systems, allowing proper mixing without additional power consumption. Proper coupling between microchip geometry and its operating conditions was verified by simulating the dispersion of a non-reactive tracer injected in one of the inlet ports while feeding the others with water. For low flow rates, the tracer flows parallel to the water stream up to half of the mixing section and full mixing occurs after the second serpentine channel. For flow rates higher than 250 μL min-1, it shows secondary fluxes are intensified and promote mixing after both the third curve at the mixing section and at the beginning of the serpentine channels after the fourth reactant inlet, ensuring better conditions if the desired reaction is limited by contact between the reactants.