Microfluidic studies of carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration, storage and recycling will greatly benefit from comprehensive studies of physical and chemical gas-liquid processes involving CO2. Over the past five years, microfluidics emerged as a valuable tool in CO2-related research, due to superior mass and heat transfer, reduced axial dispersion, well-defined gas-liquid interfacial areas and the ability to vary reagent concentrations in a high-throughput manner. This Minireview highlights recent progress in microfluidic studies of CO2-related processes, including dissolution of CO2 in physical solvents, CO2 reactions, the utilization of CO2 in materials science, and the use of supercritical CO2 as a "green" solvent.