A Reverse Oscillatory Flow microreactor system for the synthesis of uniformly-size CdS nanoparticles

A Reverse Oscillatory Flow (ROF) microreactor system is used to explore the continuous synthesis of CdS nanoparticles with a narrow particle size distribution and characteristic diameters of less than 5 nanometers. In continuous flow microreactor systems, particle size distribution is known to be greatly affected by the parabolic velocity profile within microchannels. To minimize these effects, efforts were made to reduce mixing times and variations in residence time due to laminar flow. This ROF method reduces mixing time by employing both diffusional and advective mixing. The oscillatory nature of the ROF method reduces the residence time variation by retarding the development of the parabolic laminar velocity profile. Nanoparticle characterization includes TEM and XRD analyses.