Effect of interfacial instabilities and hydrodynamic interaction on liquid-liquid mass transfer

Mass transfer rate between two liquid phases with a plane interface has been studied in a modified Lewis stirred cell. The time interval between the successive concentration determinations was reduced to thirty seconds by the use of a continuous flow refractometer. The mass transfer coefficients were found to correlate satisfactorily with the surface renewal model unless interfacial motion is opposed by the change in physical properties of the system or interfacial shear stresses. Under these conditions Levich-Davies model could successfully explain the experimental mass transfer coefficients found in this work. Due to the effect of the shear stresses and the changes in the physical properties, bulk Reynolds numbers were not sufficient alone to explain the hydrodynamics at the interface which control the mass transfer rate. Instead, another dimensionless quantity such as the ratio of interfacial stresses to kinetic energies of the eddies should be used as a criterion of the hydrodynamics at the interface. © 1980.