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.

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.

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:

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:

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

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