Microreactors reactions involving liquids

Recently, ionic liquids have been employed as solvents in many catalytic processes, because they provide effective media for reactions involving ionic intermediates. Easy separation of organic products from ionic Uquids is also advantageous. An efficient and rapid method for the oxidation of cydohexene in an ionic liquid medium has been devdoped using a microreactor (length of the channel of the microreactor 3 cm, width 200 pm, depth 50 pm) (Scheme 7.10) [96, 99]. The yield of product is higher than that with conventional batch reactors. The water-soluble ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoUum tetrafluoroborate is used to improve the solubility of cydohexene in the reaction buffer. 

This chapter provides an overview of the mass transfer characteristics of multiphase microreactors. Basic concepts are explained and related to mass transfer in sequented (drop/bubble) flow, annular flow, and to multiphase flow through packed microchannels. In multiphase microreactors, a chemical reaction can either involve two immiscible fluid phases (e.g. for gas-liquid reactions) or two fluid phases in the presence of a solid catalyst or the reaction is exclusively confined to one of the fluid phases that are present in the system. 

---