Efficient photosensitized oxygenations in phase contact enhanced microreactors

Abstract

A transparent dual-channel microreactor with highly enhanced contact area-to-volume ratio was fabricated for efficient photosensitized oxygenations. The dual-channel microreactor shielded with polyvinylsilazane (PVSZ) consisting of an upper channel for liquid flow and a lower channel for O₂ flow, allows sufficient phase contact along the parallel channels through a gas permeable PDMS membrane for maintaining the O₂ saturated solution. Under full exposure of reactants to light, the reactions in high concentration are completed in minutes rather than hours that it takes to complete in a batch reactor. Moreover, the scale-up process using the microreactor revealed higher productivity than the batch reactor, which would be valuable for the practical applications in a broad range of gas–liquid chemical reactions.