Chemical pumping and wireless electrochemical platforms for next-generation reactors

The precise control of fluid dynamics and mass transport is essential across analytical chemistry, catalysis, and process engineering. While traditional macroscale systems rely on external mechanical pumps, the push toward miniaturized, autonomous platforms like Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) devices necessitates a critical shift toward non-mechanical fluidic mechanisms. This review provides a selective and critical analysis of non-mechanical pumping systems, ranging from purely chemical propulsion (e.g., self-driven micro-motors) to systems actuated by external physical stimuli (e.g., thermal or acoustic fields). However, while these methods offer remote control, they frequently suffer from fuel dependency and, critically, the operational decoupling of actuation from reaction kinetics. Electrochemical principles, particularly Bipolar Electrochemistry (BE), provide a superior solution through Faradaic-coupled fluidic actuation, where localized chemical changes (e.g., gas evolution, pH gradients) generate self-regulating flow. The central focus of this work is the emergence of truly autonomous, wireless, and self-pumping electrochemical reactors (WERs). We establish the physical foundations for efficiency in these systems using dimensionless parameters like the Wagner number (Wa) and provide a mechanistic link between mass transport and selectivity via the Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) effect. This rigorous assessment approach enables 'unplugged' asymmetric electrosynthesis and high-resolution chiral separation, positioning autonomous arrays as an operational framework for smart chemical manufacturing.