Neutron imaging and modelling inclined vortex driven thin films.

The vortex fluidic device (VFD) is a thin film microfluidic platform which has a wide range of applications in synthesis and other areas of science, and it is important to understand the nature of the thin film of liquid in its inclined rapidly rotating tube. Neutron imaging has been used to determine the thickness of the film in a quartz tube with its shape modelled mathematically, showing good agreement between the model and experiments. The resultant equations are useful for studying VFD mediated processing in general, for which the optimal tilt angle of the tube is typically 45°. This includes its utility for the intelligent scale-up of organic syntheses, as demonstrated in the present study by the scaling up of an imine and amide synthesis to >1 g/min.