Review—Miniaturized and Microfluidic Devices for Automated Nanoparticle Synthesis

Abstract

Recently, the usage of automated microfluidic integrated platforms in chemical synthesis has emerged as an extremely useful tool for nano/micro structures fabrication. Owing to their cost-effectiveness, portability and low sample consumption, these devices has gained substantial attention especially towards industrial outlook. The physical, chemical, mechanical and magnetic properties of the nanomaterials are greatly influenced by their morphological aspects. The broad spectrum applications of nanostructures in versatile fields like biomedical, energy storage/harvest, biosensing, catalysis, imaging, electronics and engineering, hugely depend on their morphology. Therefore, an automated, robust but customizable synthesis is the key to attain uniformity and reproducibility of morphology. Therefore, microfluidic devices offer features like control fluid flow, faster mixing of reagents, precise heat transfer mechanism and well-regulated pressure, giving a homogenous quality of nanocrytalline material for multiplexed applications. The studies have reported that the micro-devices assisted synthesized nanoparticles have less particle size distribution curve than those prepared traditionally. During the last decade, nano-and-micro sized crystals, colloids, particles, clusters have been synthesized so far using micro-controlled devices. This review summarizes the recent advances and the future scope of various miniaturized and microfluidic automated devices to realize nano crystalline materials.