MASS TRANSFER ACROSS AN INTERFACE OF STAGNANT LIQUID LAYER WITH PERIODICAL VORTEX MOTION

Abstract

To reexamine the mechanism of liquid-phase mass transfer across a free interface, absorption of pure oxygen into an aqueous solution of KOH was studied experimentally by making use of an electrolytic reaction of dissolved oxygen: O₂+2H₂O+4e^-→_←4OH^-. The gas-liquid interface was periodically renewed by an artificially-induced rolling-up vortex motion. It was found that the fractional rate of surface renewal is proportional to the velocity amplitude divided by the wavelength of the periodical vortex motion and that the Sherwood number of liquid-phase mass transfer is in proportion to the square root of the Peclet number.