The concept of interfacial reactions for mass transfer in liquid/liquid systems

Abstract

Interfacial reactions during reactive mass transfer between liquid phases are the central point of this contribution. In order to go from the general problem to identify the site of the reaction and the rate-controlling step, a kinetic treatment of interfacial reactions is proposed that considers the individual processes of all the species involved. This concept, together with a new method for the determination of individual transport coefficients, leads to an efficient concept of resistances and to the possibility of treating chemically coupled systems (coextraction). Finally, the pronounced effects of adsorption layers are discussed with respect to diffusional- and interfacial-controlled mass transfer.