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Topics in Current Chemistry 
December 2018, 376:44 | Cite as

Continuous-Flow Microreactors for Polymer Synthesis: Engineering Principles and Applications



Polymerization is widely involved in the fabrication of high-performance materials. With its advantages, microreactors are typically applied to reaction processes which are limited by transport properties of conventional batch reactors. As demonstrated in this review, numerous polymerization processes are suitable to be conducted in microreactors with showing excellent polymerization performance (e.g., precisely controllable molecular weights and structures of polymer products). However, distinctive differences between polymerization processes and small-molecular reaction systems can be easily expected since fluid physical properties vary significantly during the polymerization. Herein, we firstly clearly describe the engineering principles such as mass transport phenomena and energy dissipation related to polymerization processes in microreactors, and then give a great deal of application examples (classified as homogeneous polymerization, heterogeneous polymerization, and photopolymerization) through which readers indeed can further understand these relevant principles. Finally, the remaining challenges associated with the application of microreactor technology for polymerization processes and remarking conclusions are presented.


Microreactors Flow chemistry Photochemistry Mass transfer Polymers Polymerization

This article is part of the Topical Collection “Sustainable Flow Chemistry”; edited by Timothy Noel and Rafael Luque.



Y. S. would like to acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 21676164) and the Recruitment Program for Young Professionals initiated by Government of China. We also thank Mr. Wenhua Xu for his help in collecting some relevant references.







Su, Y., Song, Y. & Xiang, L. Top Curr Chem (Z) (2018) 376: 44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41061-018-0224-1



