Micro Reactor Chip Development Service

Creative Biolabs develops and constructs microreactors for clients all over the world to help biologists or chemists better carry out their research.

Why Choose Micro Reactor?

The microstructure reactor is a device that uses lower lateral dimensions to confine the reaction. The liquid microreactor was originally established for nuclear research, which shows the handling advantage to hazardous and highly exothermic reactions at the microscale. Compared with traditional glass containers, microreactors have irreplaceable advantages.

• Excellent heat transfer coefficient
  Microreactors usually obtain a higher heat transfer coefficient. Compared with glass containers, microreactors remove reaction heat more quickly and effectively, and can safely carry out dangerous reactions such as nitrification at high temperatures. In addition, this also leads to low local temperature gradients, which enable precise kinetic and thermodynamic studies.
• Accurate reaction temperature
  Microstructure reactors allow faster temperature change as well as lower working temperatures. The reaction temperature of many low-temperature reactions will be much higher than that of traditional reactors. For example, organometallic chemistry can be performed in microreactors at -10°C instead of the -50°C-78°C.
• Continuous flow
  The liquid in the microreactor usually flows continuously to avoid batch processing delays in conventional experiments, while speeding up the reaction process and allowing operators to directly process unstable intermediate products. In critical experiments where the reaction time is in the millisecond range, this advantage avoids the decay of precious products and also brings more choices to the experimental route.

Fig 1. Customizable multivariate modules are the biggest advantage of micro reactors.^1,4

In addition, the closed structure of the microchannels allows the acceleration of the reaction by raising the temperature above the boiling point of the solvent or direct pressurization. The advantages of microchannel reactors make them valuable tools in the hands of chemists, biologists, or reaction engineers and are widely used in the fields of analysis, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, synthesis, and biotechnology.

Microchip Enzyme Reactor

Enzymes can be immobilized on different supports in flow systems, these miniaturized reactors have good substrate specificity, easy product separation and operation. By using different biomolecules, microchips can be used as liquid chromatography chips for electrochemical, optical and mass spectrometry detection. By immobilizing proteolytic enzymes in the chip, the microreactor can realize protein digestion in a short time. In addition, through molecular synthesis, functional group conversion and product signal amplification can also be achieved through different enzymatic reactions. Creative Biolabs has all the experiences and resources that allow us to bond a variety of biomolecules commonly used in immunoassay experiments and mass spectrometry (e.g., proteins, DNA, RNA, antigens, antibodies) to suitable solid supports. We can also bind multiple molecules together/sequentially to achieve more complex functions according to your needs.

Fig. 2 Microchip enzyme reactor.^2,4

Liquid Phase Synthesis, Degradation and Extraction

Green chemistry and compact systems are the main trends in the development of the chemical industry, which is the main advantage of microreactors. In the process of chemical synthesis, microreactors can synthesize molecules quickly and efficiently, which is mainly due to its excellent thermodynamics, higher surface area to volume ratio, engineering advantages for effective handling of intermediates, and online purification modules for products. Microreactors significantly improve the safety of operations with a higher degree of product, even in some dangerous and difficult experiments. In the liquid-phase degradation process, through material modification and the introduction of magnetic, optical, and electrical structural units, microreactors often have higher catalytic treatment efficiency and product purity. Extraction processes performed at the microscopic level also have advantages over macroscopic experiments, including higher mass transfer coefficients, shorter extraction times and excellent S/V ratios, which minimize reaction times and reactant volumes. Creative Biolabs will help you to transfer macro experiments to micro-scale structures. With our help, you are capable of exploring and optimizing the best process parameters to achieve better reaction product conversion and molecular characteristics.

Fig 3. Overview of a reactor system with four reactor combinations.^3,4

Our Service

We will combine and utilize knowledge of engineering, biology and chemistry to help you design and fabricate microreactor chips with suitable functions. With our help and appropriate operations in the microchannel, you may build a microscale experimental platform with excellent safety, reliability and scalability that suits your project, so don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

References

1. Huang, Wang, et al. " Magnetic Field-Enhancing Photocatalytic Reaction in Micro Optofluidic Chip Reactor." Nanoscale Research Letters 14 (2019): 323.
2. Nagy, Huszank, et al. " Study of the geometry of open channels in a layer-bed-type microfluidic immobilized enzyme reactor." Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 413 (2021): 6321-6332.
3. Kandelhard, Schuldt, et al. " Model-Assisted Optimization of RAFT Polymerization in Micro-Scale Reactors—A Fast Screening Approach." Macromolecular Reaction Engineering 15 (2021): 200028.
4. under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.