Microfluidic-based in-situ determination for reaction kinetics of hydrogen peroxide decomposition

Abstract

In this work, a microfluidic approach was presented to study the reaction kinetics of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) decomposition. The production rate of oxygen correlated to the volume change of bubbles in microchannel via in-situ visualization in order to characterize H2O2 decomposition. Kinetic models were established to determine the reaction rate constant and activation energy of H2O2 decomposition reaction as a function of temperature, initial mass fraction of H2O2, light intensity, and pH value. Meanwhile, the reaction density functional theory calculation indicated a good agreement with the conclusions from the experimental observations. This method provides a rapid, accurate and common approach to determine the kinetics of liquid-to-gas decomposition reactions. Furthermore, the set of kinetic data are beneficial to the process optimization of reactions involving H2O2.