Segmented flow capillary microreactors for determination of kinetic rate constants of reactive zinc extraction system

•Segmented flow microreactors were used to obtain extraction kinetic rate constants.•Kinetic constants obtained were much higher compared to previous literature.•Small deviation of the kinetic rate constants were obtained.•The control regimes and rate-determining steps were investigated. Conventional techniques for kinetic rate constant acquisition are limited by diffusive transport, which can be well addressed by microfluidic techniques. Segmented flow capillary microreactors were used for the first time in this study to obtain kinetic rate constants for a reactive zinc extraction system. The influences of initial zinc ion concentration, total flow velocity, pH of the aqueous phase, and ionic strength on the kinetic rate constant determination were investigated. The control regimes were determined with the ratio of reaction to total resistance R, and the Hatta number. The kinetic rate constants obtained at low initial zinc concentrations, low acidity and high flow velocities exhibited minor deviations, indicating that the zinc sulfate/D2EHPA system could be under the kinetic control regime with the capillary microreactors, which also demonstrated the viability of the segmented flow approach. The kinetic rate constant data obtained with the segmented flow capillary microreactor from this work were much higher than those obtained from previous studies, which may be attributed to the fact that the microreactor minimizes the influence of diffusive transport. The purpose of this work was to provide reliable kinetic data of the reactive zinc extraction system and to verify the efficiency and superiority of the segmented flow microreactor approach over other techniques.