• Citer

How imperfect mixing and differential diffusion accelerate the rate of nonlinear reactions in microfluidic channels

par Niedl, Robert;Berenstein, Igal ;Beta, Carsten
Référence PCCP. Physical chemistry chemical physics, 18, 9, page (6451-6457)
Publication Publié, 2016

Article révisé par les pairs

• Détails
• Contenu

Résumé :

In this paper, we show experimentally that inside a microfluidic device, where the reactants are segregated, the reaction rate of an autocatalytic clock reaction is accelerated in comparison to the case where all the reactants are well mixed. We also find that, when mixing is enhanced inside the microfluidic device by introducing obstacles into the flow, the clock reaction becomes slower in comparison to the device where mixing is less efficient. Based on numerical simulations, we show that this effect can be explained by the interplay of nonlinear reaction kinetics (cubic autocatalysis) and differential diffusion, where the autocatalytic species diffuses slower than the substrate.