Catalytic Microgel Reactions at Interface of Immiscible Droplets

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Reactions in multiphase systems can lead to higher yields at lower catalyst quantities and reduced energy consumption due to the existence of a large interfacial area compared to bulk systems. Catalytic reactions at interfaces of emulsions are of great interest for fundamental science and industrial applications. The main focus of this proposal is the investigation of the catalytic performance of surface-active microgel-based catalysts at the interface between two immiscible liquids using a digital microfluidic (DMF) platform. DMF is a powerful tool to generate well-defined interfaces and study interfacial reactions on droplet level. Series of microgel-based catalysts with controlled size, crosslinking density, tunable amount and localization of organocatalysts will be synthesized and characterized. Using DMF, we will generate model interfaces by contact of two immiscible droplets to localize the microgels at the liquid-liquid interfaces. Using this technology, we would like (a) to study reactions at the interface of two immiscible droplets in steady-state, (b) to define reaction/incubation times by time-variable generation of the liquid-liquid interface, (c) to separate the immiscible droplets which contain the products without any residuals at the interface, (d) to enable cascade reactions, (e) to enable analytics of each droplet and interface. The DMF setup will be used for systematic studies of the catalytic activity of microgel catalysts at the liquid-liquid interfaces with the specific focus on the reaction yields, selectivity and reaction kinetics for aldol and oxidative cleavage reactions. This project will gain new and important insights into the mechanism, physical and chemical phenomena as well as kinetics of reactions of microgel-based cata-lysts at the interface of immiscible droplets. This project will allow development of flexible mi-crofluidic platforms for improvement of high-throughput emulsion-based processes in industri-al applications. This project will allow the development of a flexible configurable microfluidic platform for high-throughput screening of emulsion-based processes in industrial applications.