A comprehensive review of micro-distillation methods

Distillation is a powerful technique for separating the component substance from a miscible fluid mixture by means of selective evaporation and condensation. Distillation is of importance in many microfluidic applications, including food processing, gas/liquid separation, and biochemical. However, at the microscale, surface tension forces exceed gravitational and hydrodynamic forces, and hence traditional gravity-based distillation methods have only a limited efficiency. Consequently, various alternative methods for separating miscible fluid mixtures at the microscale have been proposed in recent years based on techniques such as vacuum forces, capillary forces, centrifugal forces/gravity effect, other types, and so on. The main developments in the micro-distillation field are introduced and discussed in the present review.