High-rate synthesis of phosphine-stabilized undecagold nanoclusters using a multilayeredmicromixer

Abstract

Growth in the potential applications of nanomaterials has led to a focus on thedevelopment of new manufacturing approaches for these materials. In particular, anincreased demand due to the unique properties of nanomaterials requires a substantial yieldof high-performance materials and a simultaneous reduction in the environmental impact ofthese processes. In this paper, a high-rate production of phosphine-stabilizedundecagold nanoclusters was achieved using a layer-up strategy which involvesthe use of microlamination architectures; the patterning and bonding of thinlayers of material (laminae) to create a multilayered micromixer in the range of25–250 µm thick was used to step up the production of phosphine-stabilized undecagoldnanoclusters. The continuous production of highly monodispersedphosphine-stabilized undecagold nanoclusters at a rate of about 11.8 (mg s − 1) was achieved using a microreactor with a size of1.687 cm3. This result is about 500 times over conventional batch syntheses based on the productionrate per reactor volume.