A millifluidic calorimeter with InfraRed thermography for the measurement of chemical reaction enthalpy and kinetics

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present an infrared calorimeter for the measurement of the kinetics and the enthalpy of high exothermic chemical reactions. The main idea is to use a millifluidic chip where the channel acts as a chemical reactor. An infrared camera is used to deduce the heat flux produced by the chemical reaction from the processing of temperature fields. Due to the size of the microchannel, a small volume of reagents (ml) is used. As the chemical reagents are injected by a syringe pump, continuous experiments are performed with a very good control of the reagents mixing. A specific injection system enables to perform two flow configurations: co-flow and droplets. Thanks to the thermal isoperibolic conditions, the chemical reaction can be easily characterized with a previous specific calibration. Here, the gradual mixing by species diffusion and the enthalpy of a strong acid base reaction are monitored in co - flow configuration.