Nanomaterial Flow Synthesis​

To close the gap between nanoparticle syntheses in the lab and commercial applications, robustness and reproducibility of syntheses must be addressed. Flow reactors provide novel routes for nanoparticle synthesis at highly controlled process conditions, while facilitating large-scale production via long operation times. This is demonstrated by our studies on nanoparticle synthesis in flow, targeting applications in the field of catalysis, sensor technology, as well as healthcare-related applications (antimicrobial materials, diagnostics, magnetically induced hyperthermia cancer treatment). We focus on the reaction engineering of innovative reactors for novel synthetic procedures, for example, for noble/pure metal and magnetic nanoparticles. The developed flow reactors allow for continuous nanoparticle production with online analysis at challenging process conditions. To implement this, multiphase flow, high pressures and temperatures, rapid mixing and heating/cooling, etc. are the common approaches employed from the flow chemistry toolbox allowing us to outperform current batch systems.