Mixing in Micro-mixers

Dear Colleagues,

Microfluidics is presenting new opportunities in a wide range of fields, covering chemical and biological analyses; chemical synthesis; as well production of droplets, particles, and emulsions. A very large variety of cutting-edge applications could benefit from advanced microfluidic devices, as proven by the increasing interest towards m-TAS, Lab-on-Chip, MEMS, bio-MEMS, and micro-reactors.

Microfluidic systems enable unprecedented control over process conditions. Miniaturization is the main route towards the process intensification of chemical reactions used for drug and fine chemistry synthesis, with less wastes and energy compared to conventional batch/semi-batch processes. Moreover, nano- and micro-particles of desired shapes and dimensions can be produced using microfluidic devices.

For all these applications, efficient and fast mixing is probably the most important issue. The flow is laminar, with typical Reynolds numbers lower than 250. Hence, mixing should be promoted by generating secondary flow patterns improving the contribution of convection. This can be accomplished by means of active enhancing methods using external energy sources (e.g., ultrasound, electric field, and pressure disturbance) or passive methods based on a special mixer configuration to trigger the splitting and recombination of fluid streams.  However, understanding fluid dynamics and mixing behavior at the microscale is not straightforward, posing many challenges from the theoretical, experimental, and numerical modeling perspectives. Moreover, there is still a lack of knowledge about how mixing is affected by process parameters and operating conditions, including, for instance, fluid rheology.

We would like to invite authors to contribute to the present Special Issue by sharing their research on mixing in micro-mixers.  Studies could cover both active and passive micro-mixers, addressing fundamental insights of mixing at the micro-scale, including the effect of mixing on reaction yield and particle nucleation, and/or technological aspects, aimed at mixing enhancement and control. Experimental and/or numerical techniques devoted to mixing characterization and optimization are welcomed.

Prof. Chiara Galletti
Guest Editor

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• Mixing enhancement
• Microfluidics
• Micro-reactors
• Active mixers
• Passive mixer
• Laminar flow
• Micro-LIF
• Micro-PIV
• Numerical simulations
• Lab-on-chip