Pile-up glass microreactor

Abstract

We made a ‘pile-up’ microreactor in which ten levels of microchannel circuits were integrated to form a single glass entity. Solutions were distributed to each layer via cylindrical holes with a diameter much larger than that of the microchannel. Fabrication of the pile-up reactor was completed using only conventional photolithography, wet etching and thermal bonding techniques, and no special facilities or instruments were required. An amide formation reaction between amine in aqueous solution and acid chloride in organic solution was carried out using the pile-up reactor. The yield of the amide formation reaction is dependent on the size of the specific surface area between the two solutions, and the small space inside the microchannels is good for acquiring a large specific surface area without any stirring processes. The maximum throughput for the ten-layered pile-up reactor was ten times larger than that of a single-layered one, yet the reaction yield was still high. Productivity of the pile-up reactor for the reaction was as high as on a gram per hour scale. This value suggests that many conventional plants producing fine chemicals can be replaced by microreactors through the numbering-up technology.