Dynamic Liquid-Liquid Interface: Applying a Spinning Interfacial Microreactor to Actively Converge Biphasic Reactants for the Enhanced Interfacial Reaction

A liquid-liquid interfacial reaction combines reactants with large polarity disparity to achieve greener and more efficient chemistry that is otherwise challenging in traditional single-phase systems. However, current interfacial approaches suffer from the need for a large amount of solvent/reactant/emulsifier and poor reaction performance arising from intrinsic thermodynamic constraints. Herein, we achieve an efficient interfacial reaction by creating a magnetic-responsive, microscale liquid-liquid interface and exploit its dynamic spinning motion to generate vortex-like hydrodynamic flows that rapidly converge biphasic reactants to the point-of-reaction. Notably, the spinning of this functional interface at 800 rpm boosts the reaction efficiency and its apparent equilibrium constant by > 500-fold and 10(5)-fold, respectively, higher than conventional methods that utilize bulk and/or non-dynamic liquid interfaces, even with external mechanical stirring. By driving reaction equilibrium toward favorable product formation, our unique design offers enormous opportunities to realize efficient multiphasic reactions crucial for diverse applications in chemical synthesis, environmental remediation, and even molecular recycling.

Automated summary

Liquid-liquid interfacial reaction offers a greener and more efficient chemistry, but current methods suffer from the need for a large amount of solvent/reactant/emulsifier and poor reaction performance. Researchers have now achieved an efficient interfacial reaction by creating a magnetic-responsive microscale liquid-liquid interface and utilizing its dynamic spinning motion to rapidly converge biphasic reactants. This design boosts reaction efficiency and equilibrium constant, providing enormous opportunities for efficient multiphase reactions in various applications.