Abstract:

The recent progress of micro-, chemical, biological and thermal systems and micro-fabrication in China is reviewed. Due to the inherent miniaturization, and intensification of heat and mass transfer, micro-reactors have great potential in chemical reactions, such as liquid phase reactions, gas phase reactions and nano-scale particles synthesis. It is reasonable to apply the microreactor technology to some highly dangerous reactions or the reactions with the products that are costly or difficult to obtain by using conventional methods. Great progress has been made in applications of microfluidics in biological analysis and testing. Nevertheless, the size of analytical apparatuses remains more or less unchanged. Further miniaturization of the analytical apparatuses is of vital importance in practical applications. Although the great advance has been achieved in the fields of micro thermal systems, there is still a lack of fundamental understanding of the heat and mass transfer in the systems. With increasing interest and investment for micro-engineering, the fabrication technologies will surely be developed much faster than before. Standardization of these technologies will be needed in order to achieve commercialization. A new industrial sector can be expected with the application of micro- technology to high tech products.