Microfluidic synthesis of switchable materials

Overview & Synopsis

The conventional methodology to synthesize spin-crossover materials has some degree of irreproducibility due to the unpredictability of the turbulent flows in the reaction media contained in ordinary laboratory glassware. To address this issue, we explore surfactant-free droplet microfluidics as a new method to synthesize spin-crossover materials.After probing the use of different microfluidic devices, we synthesized the Hofmann type MOF [Fe(pz)Pt(CN)4] by combining two solutions with reactants into a channel that immediately reaches a flow-focusing junction. The product obtained displays a strong decrease in its particle size compared with the batch synthesis. The obtained nanoparticles display a magnetic behavior consistent with the nanoparticles reported previously.Unfortunately, under the high concentrations used here, the reaction occurs very quickly, and the device can easily clog when the flow rates are changed. This leads to difficulties when attempting to modulate the dimensions of the droplets without affecting the general performance of the device. To solve this problem, we developed a new method where a swelling agent is combined with the oil used as the continuous phase, resulting in a change in the critical dimensions of the PDMS chip and a change of the diameter of the droplets of almost two orders of magnitude.