(419b) Making Molecules and Materials in Fluidic Factories

The science of microfluidics has revolutionized the way we explore, discover and manufacture advanced structured materials. The ability of microfluidics to generate fluid-fluid interfaces and compartments with high precision, when coupled to intrinsically tunable molecular and thermal transport phenomena in such systems, allows us to go well beyond the paradigm of the synthetic flask or stirred-batch reactor in the laboratory and industry respectively. This talk will focus on the microfluidics-enabled manufacture of molecules and materials, drawing direct inspiration from and making links to the many seminal contributions made by Professor Klavs F. Jensen, ranging from CVD reactors to microfluidic chemical systems and digital manufacturing. First, we will showcase ‘meso’-fluidic multiphase reactors for kilo-scale pharmaceutical and fine-chemical/materials synthesis, where the interplay between physical and chemical rate processes leads to reactor behavior analogous to that of CVD reactors. Next, we will showcase ‘wall-less’ droplet-based microfluidic systems, in which complex fluid behavior is leveraged to enable the creation of microscale droplets that are completely undisturbed by exterior fluid motion or solid boundaries and thus approach an ideal state for performing sensitive processes like pharmaceutical crystallization. Finally, inspired by the Professor Jensen’s work on digital manufacturing over the past decade, we will discuss the use of automated microfluidic systems integrated with advanced hyperspectral imaging and machine learning for accelerated chemical/materials discovery and process development.