Micromixing visualization and quantification in a microscale multi-inlet vortex nanoprecipitation reactor using...

Area of Science:

• Chemical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Microscale chemical reactors offer enhanced control and efficiency.
• Quantifying mixing is crucial for optimizing microreactor performance.
• Traditional methods struggle to visualize reactive micromixing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel reactive confocal microscopic laser induced fluorescence (μ-LIF) technique.
• To visualize and quantify reactive micromixing in a microfluidic vortex reactor.
• To assess mixing and reaction completeness across laminar and turbulent flow regimes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized confocal μ-LIF for reactive visualization.
• Employed a microscale multi-inlet vortex nanoprecipitation reactor.
• Investigated flow at various Reynolds numbers (laminar and turbulent).

Main Results:

• Reactive μ-LIF successfully visualized and quantified micromixing effects.
• Incomplete mixing and reaction observed in both laminar (Re=10-93) and turbulent (Re=240) flows.
• Lower velocities near reactor walls hindered mixing, creating unreacted fluid regions.

Conclusions:

• The reactive μ-LIF technique is effective for studying microscale mixing.
• Incomplete mixing persists even at high Reynolds numbers in this reactor design.
• Findings aid in validating computational fluid dynamics models for microreactors.