3D Printing (previous, current, and future)

Our group is exploring the possibilities 3D printing offers to chemical engineering, mask design and more. Our lab now has professional CAD software and an FDM style 3D printer giving us the opportunity to quickly designs and create new parts out of ABS, polypropylene or PLA based on experimental needs. We have been designing and 3D printing devices resembling microreactors with millimeter scale internal geometries that allow us to carry out flow chemistry. The small volume of chemicals and precise control of reaction conditions make these devices safe and green. Our goal is to incorporate off-line as well as in-line analytical techniques in order to study reaction kinetics and derive data such as reaction rate, rate constant, and activation energy. Future endeavors include reactor systems with multiple unit operations including mixing, heat exchange, and separations. We are also interested in several types of designing products, such as transparent masks as well as modelling using CFD.