A 3D passive micromixer with particle of stochastic motion through limonene dissolution method

A 3D passive micromixer with particles of stochastic motion is presented. 3D printing technology and computer numerical control milling technology are employed to manufacture the channel mold with the material of high impact polystyrene. Furthermore, a limonene dissolution method is utilized to dissolve the channel mold. The experimental results demonstrated that the mixing efficiency of the micromixer first increases and then decreases with the increase in the number of particles. Specifically, the mixing efficiency of the micromixer with two cube particles reaches 0.95 with the optimal particle size of 1.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 mm3. In addition, the larger the flow velocity is, the higher the mixing efficiency of the micromixer is. When the flow velocity reaches 1.0 ml/min, the mixing efficiency of the micromixer exceeds 0.9. Compared with the previous micromixers, a 3D passive micromixer with particles of stochastic motion has the advantages of simple manufacturing and no external power. This article is of great significance to the research of micromixers.