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Christian Hornung

Microcapillary Reactors

Christian worked in the Polymer Fluids Group both as a PhD student and as a Postdoctoral Research Asociate. The objective of his PhD project was the design, construction and evaluation of microfluidic devices based on Microcapillary Films (MCFs). MCFs are a novel type of plastic films containing microcapillary arrays of continuous length. They are manufactured by gas assisted polymer extrusion at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cambridge. The capillaries have diameters between 30 and 500 microns, which results in substantially different flow properties compared to conventional piping systems. The high surface area to volume ratio of MCFs leads to large heat and mass transfer rates. Beside microfluidic applications such as micro heat exchangers, separation and spraying devices, the main focus of this work lay on the design of a microreactor using MCFs as reaction chambers. This reactor could be modified to perform a series of different liquid-phase reactions, such as photochemical reactions, highly exo- and endothermic reactions or heterogeneuos catalytic reactions using catalytic wall coating.

A prototype mcf reactor
A prototype microcapillary film reactor

 

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