A High-Throughput Chaotic Advection Microreactor for Preparation of
Uniform and Aggregated BaSO4 Nanoparticles
Abstract
A high-throughput (105.5 g/h) passive four-stage asymmetric oscillating
feedback microreactor using chaotic mixing mechanism was developed to
prepare aggregated BaSO4 particles of high primary nanoparticle size
uniformity. Three-dimensional unsteady simulations showed that chaotic
mixing could be induced by three unique secondary flows (i.e., vortex,
recirculation, and oscillation), and the fluid oscillation mechanism was
examined in detail. Simulations and Villermaux-Dushman experiments
indicate that almost complete mixing down to molecular level can be
achieved and the prepared BaSO4 nanoparticles were with narrow primary
particle size distribution (PSD) having geometric standard deviation,
σg, less than 1.43 when the total volumetric flow rate Qtotal was larger
than 10 mL/min. By selecting Qtotal and reactant concentrations, average
primary particle size can be controlled from 23 to 109 nm as determined
by microscopy. An average size of 26 nm with narrow primary PSD (σg =
1.22) could be achieved at Qtotal of 160 mL/min.