The ability to optimize a chemical reaction, and tailor reaction conditions, such as concentration, flow rate, and temperature, is an industrially relevant process. Studying such variables is important to determine the yield, purity and effectiveness of a chemical reactor in order to optimize reaction conditions. Studying chemical reactors should be an integral part of training any chemists. However, the cost of full size chemical reactors can be prohibitive. One of the most rapid, efficient, and low-cost ways to design, fabricate and test such a reactor is with the use of a 3-D printer coupled with Computer Assisted Design (CAD) software. We have designed such a chemical reactor and tested several different versions to optimize reaction conditions and followed the reaction in near-real-time analysis. Our design includes a cuvette holder to be inserted into a standard spectrometer, thus making analysis by UV-Vis highly convenient and efficient. To achieve our goal, a 2nd order reaction of Methyl-Green degradation by the hydroxide anion in aqueous solutions was carried out. Then the yield and the kinetics under flow conditions were evaluated and the kinetics of this reaction was reported using our reactor design. The same study was also completed under pseudo 1st order kinetics.

Cost effective chemical reactor to study pseudo-first order and 2nd order degradation of methyl-green under basic conditions

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.