The impact of reaction rate on the formation of flow-driven confined precipitate patterns

Abstract

The production of solid materials via chemical reactions is abundant both in nature and in industrial processes. Precipitation reactions coupled with transport phenomena lead to enhanced product properties not observed in the traditional well-stirred systems. Herein, we present a flow-driven pattern formation upon radial injection in a confined geometry for various chemical systems to show how reaction kinetics modifies the emerging precipitation patterns. It is found that chemically similar elements, such as alkaline earth or transition metals react on very different time scales under the same experimental conditions. The patterns are quantified and compared both with literature results obtained in unconfined solution layers and with hydrodynamic simulations.