microfluidic-pneumatic-cages-novel-approach-for-chip-crystal-trapping

Microfluidic Pneumatic Cages: A Novel Approach for In-chip Crystal Trapping, Manipulation and Controlled Chemical Treatment

The precise localization and controlled chemical treatment of structures on a surface are significant challenges for common laboratory technologies. ...

microfluidic-based-synthesis-covalent-organic-frameworks-cofs-tool

Microfluidic-based Synthesis of Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs): A Tool for Continuous Production of COF Fibers and Direct Printing on a Surface

Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) are a class of porous covalent materials which are frequently synthesized as unprocessable crystalline powders. The ...

Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

ETH Zurich

A microfluidic chip has been used to prepare fibres of a porous polymer with high structural order, setting a precedent for the generation of a wide variety of materials using this reagent mixing approach that provides unique materials not accessible easily through bulk processes. The reaction between 1,3,5-tris(4-aminophenyl)benzene and 1,3,5-benzenetricarbaldehyde in acetic acid under continuous microfluidic flow conditions leads to the formation of a highly crystalline and porous covalent organic framework (hereafter denoted as ), consisting of fibrillar micro-structures, which have mechanical stability that allows for direct drawing of objects on a surface.

Crystalline fibres of a covalent organic framework through bottom-up microfluidic synthesis.

A methodology that can be efficiently used to synthesize, isolate, and study out-of-equilibrium crystal structures employing controlled and diffusion-limited microfluidic environments is demonstrated. Unlike studies conducted with conventional mixing procedures in a flask, it is proven experimentally and with numerical simulations that microfluidic technologies can undoubtedly fine-tune reaction times and reagents concentration profiles; factors that enable out-of-equilibrium crystal forms to be obtained.

Afshin Abrishamkar

Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

Microfluidic Pneumatic Cages: A Novel Approach for In-chip Crystal Trapping, Manipulation and Controlled Chemical Treatment

Microfluidic-based Synthesis of Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs): A Tool for Continuous Production of COF Fibers and Direct Printing on a Surface