Design guidelines and manufacturing methods for microreaction devices

Microreaction technology is a powerful tool for the evaluation of new reaction pathways, process intensification in chemical engineering and combinatorial material development. Because of the small characteristic dimensions of microreaction devices, mass and heat transfer processes are enhanced and, in addition, initial and boundary conditions can be precisely adjusted for optimizing yield and selectivity. A number of microfabrication methods exist to cover prototyping and manufacturing of a few items as well as cost-effective mass production of modular and integrated microdevices for unit operations, reactions and control. Detailed analyses of methods like LIGA technology, wet and dry micro-etching, mechanical micromachining and laser processing show that a wide variety of materials is applicable to meet most requirements of chemical processes.