Sonochemical Microreactor with Microbubbles Created on Micromachined Surfaces

We present an efficient sonochemical microreactor system based on micromachined surfaces which generate microbubbles in a liquid when exposed to an ultrasonic field. Cavitation of these bubbles leads to radical formation, introducing chemical reactions in the solution. The system exhibits a high sonochemical yield at conditions which would otherwise not produce any significant chemical effect, providing higher efficiency than equivalent conventional sonochemical batch reactors. The results show an increase in total energy efficiency (expressed in the amount of radicals generated per unit power injected to the system) of one order of magnitude, compared to an experiment without the surface bubbles.