Abstract
As 3D printing technologies become more accessible, chemists are beginning to design and develop their own bespoke printable devices particularly applied to the field of flow chemistry. Designing functional flow components can often be a lengthy and laborious process requiring complex 3D modelling and multiple design iterations. In this work, we present an easy to follow design workflow for minimising the complexity of this design optimization process. The workflow follows the development of a 3D printable ‘toolkit’ of common fittings and connectors required for constructing basic flow chemistry configurations. The toolkit components consist of male threaded nuts, junction connectors and a Luer adapter. The files have themselves been made freely available and open source. The low cost associated with the toolkit may encourage educators to incorporate flow chemistry practical work into their syllabus such that students may be introduced to the principles of flow chemistry earlier on in their education and furthermore, may develop an early appreciation of the benefits of 3D printing in scientific research. In addition to the printable toolkit, the use of the 3D modelling platform – Rhino3D has been demonstrated for its application in fluidic reactor chip design modification. The simple user interface of the programme reduces the complexity and workload involved in printable fluidic reactor design.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Increased accessibility to affordable 3D printing equipment, as well as a broader acceptance of 3D printing withinThe original version of this article has been revised: The missing Electronic supplementary file named has been added.Article Highlights We show how to design and prepare a full set of interconnections suitable for preparation of a chemistry flow kit We provide, free to download and use, a a full set of printable files for these interconnections We show, and provide free to use, a simple technique for generation of printable flow chipsElectronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
Six main components considered vital for basic continuous flow configurations have been designed and modelled using 3D modelling software Siemens NX [35]
By providing printable versions of these, we hope that these interconnections will be freely available, will provide a means to introduce 3D printing into the flow process, and generate inspiration for other, bespoke interconnection devices
Summary
Increased accessibility to affordable 3D printing equipment, as well as a broader acceptance of 3D printing within. 3 Design School, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK academic environments, has led to a rapid increase in the development of new approaches for both research [1,2,3] and education [4] This increased access, as well as the iterative design process afforded by 3D printing, has resulted in design and print methodologies being made freely available to download from numerous open access online repositories [5,6,7]. Various other printable components can be used to demonstrate the basic principles behind flow chemistry and fluid dynamics [17, 18] Such devices allow for innovative flow experiments to be made accessible to both college and undergraduate students at a low cost that aid teaching of concepts such as flow profile and mixing. The accessibility and low cost associated with the toolkit will allow flow chemistry to be introduced to undergraduate and college students earlier on in their education
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