Chen Huan, Li Xiaoxu, Li Bowen, Chen Yeye, Ouyang Haoran, Li Youcun, Zhang Xinxing
College of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Chemical Power Sources, Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Centre, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition, Frontiers Science Centre for New Organic Matter, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
J Am Chem Soc. 2025 Apr 2;147(13):11399-11406. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5c01072. Epub 2025 Mar 22.
Microdroplet chemistry has attracted much attention owing to its ability to accelerate otherwise slow reactions and to trigger thermodynamically forbidden reactions. The cause of this unique behavior is the intrinsic properties of the droplets, such as the spontaneously generated electric field on the droplet surface. However, some have argued that the droplet generation methods provided energy to the reactions, and the different interfaces that the droplets contact also played important roles; therefore, it is the droplet activation or the environment, not the intrinsic properties, that is responsible for the observed chemistry. In this study, we used adiabatic expansion and dry ice in water to generate homogeneous, contactless, supercooled, and unactivated microdroplets. A large variety of reactions were successfully tested. We opine that it is the intrinsic properties, and not droplet activation, that are responsible for microdroplet chemistry.
微滴化学因其能够加速原本缓慢的反应并引发热力学上禁止的反应而备受关注。这种独特行为的原因是液滴的固有特性，例如液滴表面自发产生的电场。然而，一些人认为液滴生成方法为反应提供了能量，并且液滴接触的不同界面也起到了重要作用；因此，是液滴活化或环境而非固有特性导致了所观察到的化学反应。在本研究中，我们使用绝热膨胀和水中干冰来生成均匀、无接触、过冷且未活化的微滴。成功测试了各种各样的反应。我们认为是固有特性而非液滴活化导致了微滴化学。
