Abstract
Holistic catalytic reactors with fractal structure have attracted
growing attention in heterogeneous reactions because of its advantages
of improved mass transfer and easy separation. Herein, a simple and
cost-efficient design strategy that combined 3D printing and electroless
deposition was presented to construct dynamic, holistic stirred reactors
with the fractal structure. The conversion factor α of fractal impeller
is 65.01 mmol m-2 h-1 with a large volume of reactant (80 mL), which is
1.7 times that of the normal impeller with the same Ag catalysts.
Experimental results and simulation analysis demonstrate that the
fractal impeller significantly improves the catalytic performance by
enhancing mass transfer and spatial dispersion in the reaction.
Moreover, the holistic impeller could be reused for ten times without
obvious loss of catalytic performance, and easily separated from the
reaction system. The structural design of fractal reactors will open the
way for a new efficient dynamic heterogeneous catalytic reactor.