3D printing technology or additive manufacturing as more commonly referred to in industry, has been constantly evolving since the mid-90s of the previous century. The term of additive manufacturing encompasses a number of 3D printing techniques, where the fused filament fabrication presents the most common and well-known printing methodology. Despite reaching the technological limit of the method, the implementation of technology in other fields of science is just beginning. One of the applications among the infinite number of possibilities is the combination of printing technology, reaction engineering and the field of electrochemistry, which is presented in the following part of the work. The combination of these fields is illustrated by the fabrication of a fully printed flow reactor system to perform the electrochemical conversion of 1,4-benzoquinone to its reduced form, hydroquinone. A reactor system made of the structural polymer polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PET-G) together with a conductive composite thermoplastic of polylactic acid and black carbon (PLA-CB) is used for the reaction. The reaction was first demonstrated on the batch reactor system, which confirmed the electrochemical activity of the composite material, and secondly on the final flow reactor system, which allows a better volume to surface ratio of the of the reaction mixture to the electrode surface. Analytical methods of spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry were performed for the purposes of qualitative confirmation. Characteristic methods of analysis using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) were also performed for better understanding of the electrode’s structures and the conductivity of the composite material itself. An additional point of the work represents the computer aided comparison of fluid dynamics, and velocity profiles, between conventional and 3D printed reactor systems, where the latter have the uneven surface structure of the flow channel.
|
