Vibration in Microchannel Causes Greater Enhancement of Mass Transfer in Toluene–Acetic Acid–Water System

In recent times, microfluidic systems have emerged due to their multifunctional benefits including a higher degree of process intensification. The existence of the slug flow regime in the microdomain for biphasic flow systems further enhances the mass-transfer characteristics. In this Article, the combination of three enhancing factors, microdimension, slug flow, and mechanical vibration, is presented for a greater degree of process intensification. The effect of mechanical vibration on the hydrodynamics and mass-transfer characteristics of an immiscible liquid–liquid system in a microchannel with an internal diameter of 0.15 and 0.25 mm is investigated. Frequencies of 10 and 20 Hz are used to induce vibration in the microchannel. The result is shown to be a promising enhancement of the mass-transfer coefficient with the introduction of vibration. The range of slug flow is further enhanced due to the introduction of vibration along with a nearly three-fold mass-transfer enhancement owing to the increase in convective mass transport. A vibrational parameter is included in the study to calculate the stretched Reynolds number, which is found to increase with the introduction of vibration. The enhancement of mass transfer is attributed to the change in the flow pattern from a slug-dispersed transition and a slug-annular transition. The advancement of the vibration framework for effective fluid mixing will greatly affect the high-throughput separation process in the drug and fine synthetic industries.