https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-50262-6
Regular Article
Silver nanocluster catalytic microreactors for water purification
1 Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris – ENSCP/CNRS, UMR 8247, 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France
2 UPMC, Univ. Paris 06, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
3 Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4 Department of Physics, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan 45137-66731, Iran
a Corresponding author: D.bonn@uva.nl
Received: 17 September 2015
Revised: 2 May 2016
Published online: 15 July 2016
A new method for the elaboration of a novel type of catalytic microsystem with a high specific area catalyst is developed. A silver nanocluster catalytic microreactor was elaborated by doping a soda-lime glass with a silver salt. By applying a high power laser beam to the glass, silver nanoclusters are obtained at one of the surfaces which were characterized by BET measurements and AFM. A microfluidic chip was obtained by sealing the silver coated glass with a NOA 81 microchannel. The catalytic activity of the silver nanoclusters was then tested for the efficiency of water purification by using catalytic ozonation to oxidize an organic pollutant. The silver nanoclusters were found to be very stable in the microreactor and efficiently oxidized the pollutant, in spite of the very short residence times in the microchannel. This opens the way to study catalytic reactions in microchannels without the need of introducing the catalyst as a powder or manufacturing complex packed bed microreactors.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2016