Abstract: A microreactor with an integrated heat-exchanger has been developed for strongly exothermic liquid-liquid reactions on the basis of novel metallic microfibrous structure. The microreactor was made from simply inserting quadrate pieces of the microfibrous media in the reaction and heat-exchange chambers. This microreactor was examined in the use with the nitration of benzene. This new approach facilitates mass and heat transfer by taking the beneficial properties in terms of large void volume, three-dimensional micron-grade pore structure, and large surface area to volume ratio. Note that three-dimensional network structure acts as a micromixer thereby leading to micronic segmentation and fast mixing of fluids. The results showed that nitration of benzene could proceed completely in this novel microreactor with high selectivity at a short residence time. The selectivity of 99.4% to nitrobenzene was achieved with a benzene conversion of 91.7% at a residence time of30 sand 60 ℃.

Key words: microfiber, microreactor, benzene, nitration