Fast Micromixing for High-Resolution Reaction Time Control

Fast Micromixing for High-Resolution Reaction Time Control 

Chapter 2 focuses on the importance of what we call the residence time in flow reactions, and we have learned that controlling the residence time allows us to selectively obtain a desired product even if a product or an intermediate can decompose quickly under the reaction conditions. Concerning the validity of the residence time control, however, a reaction with a long reaction time does not need a flow reactor, but it can be carried out simply by using a conventional batch reactor. For a reaction that takes an hour or a day, the reactants are put in a batch reactor to start the reaction, after which there is a sufflcient amount of time before the reaction is terminated by adding a quenching agent to the reactor. 

However, this is difficult to get fast mixing in a conventional batch reactor and also in a large flow reactor, raising the need for a flow microreactor. You may remember that the generation and the reaction of oxiranyllithium species described in Chap. 2 would fail if the residence time cannot be controlled in the order of seconds. This is why a flow microreactor equipped with a micromixer is needed for this reaction. This chapter focuses on extremely fast mixing in a micromixer, which is needed to set a short residence time. 

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