A new micro chemical reactor stack for vertical fluid flow operation

The advantages of micro reactors for the chemical synthesis, discovery and catalyst development of substances are generally recognized today. The significant properties of microreactors such as low energy consumption, high selectivity, yields, short response times and pathways for the chemical reactions will lead to the ecological and economical process engineering. Such properties result from the large surface area to volume ratios, high gradients of temperature, pressure, and concentration of reagent solutions. The possibility to integrate a large number of micro units within a finite small space develop several major fields of application such as fine chemicals, combinatorial synthesis, high throughput screening using reactor units operated in parallel and in serial with different functions. The standard structure of the conventional micro rectors, however, expand on two dimensional substrate. From the point of micro integration and cost downing, such structure has a finite restriction. We proposed and fabricated a new chemical reactor which can operate vertically in stacked structures according to demanded chemical functions such as reaction, isolation, and purification. A variety of three-dimensional microfabrication processes brought by LIGA process using Synchrotron radiation allows new type of vertical microreactors and their components. This reactor is characterized as the simple structure with no valve and no pumping units and new aspect of the chemical reaction evoked by the use of the micro fluid filters. We have investigated the vertical fluid transport properties and the chemical properties.