The investments on basic nanomaterial research have resulted to successful commercialization of many Nano-enabled and Nano-enhanced products and processes. Nanomaterials and nanoparticles in particular find uses in biomedicine, biomedical devices, microelectronics, sensors, catalysts and adsorbents, and are becoming a common ingredient in paints and pigments, polymers and plastics, textiles and garments, and cosmetics and personal-care products. It is therefore becoming imperative to investigate more efficient, cleaner and reliable manufacturing method for nanomaterials beyond batch synthesis....[ Read more ]

The investments on basic nanomaterial research have resulted to successful commercialization of many Nano-enabled and Nano-enhanced products and processes. Nanomaterials and nanoparticles in particular find uses in biomedicine, biomedical devices, microelectronics, sensors, catalysts and adsorbents, and are becoming a common ingredient in paints and pigments, polymers and plastics, textiles and garments, and cosmetics and personal-care products. It is therefore becoming imperative to investigate more efficient, cleaner and reliable manufacturing method for nanomaterials beyond batch synthesis.

This project investigated the use of microchemical process system to act as analogue model to design lab-on-chip microreactor. Microreactor has the advantage of rapid, controlled mixing and fast heat transfer rate ensuring fast production and safe operation. Rapid scale-up by replication shorten the time-to-market, and thus making innovations more readily available.

This microchemical process system successfully demonstrated the continuous production of complex nanoparticle, Nano-scaled MCM-41. It is a unique nanomaterial and is widely studied for applications in catalysis, adsorption, separation, drug delivery, microelectronics and sensors.

Nano-scale MCM-41 preparation also represented two of the most versatile and popular synthesis routes for nanomaterials, the templated synthesis and sol-gel processing. The results would therefore be relevant for synthesis and purification of other nanomaterials.