Catalytic microreactors for aqeous phase reactions - carbon nano fibers as catalyst support

摘要

Microfabrication techniques are increasingly used in different fields of chemistry to realize structures with capabilities exceeding those of conventional macroscopic systems. Microfabricated chemical systems have a number of advantages for chemical synthesis, chemical kinetics studies and process development. Currently, there is tremendous interest to develop microstructured catalytic reactors for multiphase and/or heterogeneously catalyzed liquid phase reactions, comprising modified catalytic coatings on their internals. The use of structured catalyst supports, i.e. rigid, orderly arranged support materials such as carbon nanofibers (CNFs), is a prospective option in this respect. This thesis work describes various aspects of the development of carbon nanofiber supported catalyst layers on structured internals of microreactors made from silicon technology based materials (e.g. fused silica and/or silicon). These microreactors are intended to be used for heterogeneously catalyzed liquid phase reactions, in this case for aqueous phase removal of nitrite and bromate (increasingly found typical water contaminants) to evaluate the performance of such systems and demonstrate the benefit of CNFs as an ‘open‐structured’ support over conventional catalyst support material.