Trends in additively manufactured microfluidics, microreactors and catalytic materials

Abstract

The interest in microfluidics, that is the manipulation of fluids with volumes in the range of μL or below, has increased exponentially in the past decades, due to their relevance to diagnostics, sensors, drug-design and pilot plant prototyping. Common manufacturing processes in clean rooms for microfluidic substrates are well established, but still expensive and competence-demanding. Additive manufacturing is a promising alternative, given the inherent simple geometry and the small dimensions of microfluidic devices, which in turn allow ease of design and production along with a reduction of time and costs of the manufacturing processes. In this paper the state of the art in additive manufacturing of microfluidics and microreactors is presented, showing how vat photopolymerization, multimaterial jetting and extrusion-based additive manufacturing possess the best features in this field. An overview of the most remarkable applications obtained so far is provided, highlighting the best performance in layer height resolution achieved and the printing of dynamic devices. Furthermore, potentiality of additive manufacturing in the fabrication of catalysts for chemical reactions is reviewed. Finally, it is claimed how the rise of additive technologies in small-scale manufacturing in the future will definitely occur due to their cheapness, accessibility and ease of customization.