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Review after the first year of reaCtor project – we are on a good track!

Susann Spindler

In April 2023, we started with our 4-year-project reaCtor. The ambitious goal: to develop and demonstrate an innovative concept for photo-flow-chemistry towards a sustainable chemical industry with drastically reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Our concept involves fabricating microreactors inside hollow specialty fibres. Light from a single light source is guided in the ring core of the fibre and excites plasmonic nanoparticles located on the reaction volume wall, which efficiently drives photochemical reactions.


Fig. 1: left: schematic section of the microreactor fibre; right: schematic principle of the microreactor platform with a promising upscaling potential (using a single light source for multiple reactors)

With our interdisciplinary and international team, we have achieved remarkable results, so far:

Fibre technology: The Leibniz University Hannover designed and fabricated first preforms, which were drawn into microreactor fibres by the team at Lukasiewicz Institute (IMIF) in Poland.  Based on simulations from the University of Amsterdam on flow dynamics an optimum fibre diameter (125 µm) and hollow reaction volume was determined (100 µm diameter). The team at IMIF has built up a setup to characterize the microreactor fibres.


Fig. 2: top: first fibre preform; bottom left: first drawn fibre with 125 µm diameter and 100 µm hollow volume, scale bar: 50 µm; bottom right: microreactor fibre characterization setup at IMIF.

Monolithic integration: IMIF was furthermore working on a completely novel design of a fibre coupler to convert the incoming gaussian beam into a donut mode profile (first patent planned!).

Microfluidics: In the meantime, first experiments were successfully conducted by the University of La Laguna to develop a robust process protocol for 3D laser micromachining to obtain hollow microchannels as microfluidic in- and outlets:


Fig. 3: First successful microfluidic in/outlets by laser micromachining (13 µm cross section).

Plasmonic Nanoparticles:  Our partner AMOLF performed simulation studies to determine an optimal size and shape of plasmonic nanoparticles to match a chosen model reaction. Furthermore, different functionalization techniques to attach the particles to the inner wall of the reaction volume were tested. Using the chemical APTES, a high density of gold nanorods can be achieved:


Fig. 4: top: Surface functionalization with APTES results in amine groups which bind metal nanoparticles; bottom left: binding of gold nanoparticles over time to functionalized silica substrate (left column widefield image, right column processed images to detect nanoparticles); bottom right: particle density over time

Overall, all milestones for year 1 were successfully reached, and it is a lot of fun working together on this exciting project!


Fig. 5: Fun in the lab: a) First staff exchange at LUH; b) Second staff exchange at AMOLF.

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