The Mixer-Settler Extractor is widely used for the separation and purification of metals in the solvent extraction process of hydrometallurgy. It consists of a continuously fed and stirred mixing chamber and a settling chamber where gravity causes the mixed liquid to separate into phases.
In practice, multi-stage series configurations are often used to achieve deep separation of the target analyte. Under certain process conditions, the mass transfer efficiency of the mixing chamber is related to the mixing intensity of the agitator and the contact time between the two phases, while the settling effect is related to the viscosity, density, surface tension, droplet diameter, settling area, and settling time of the two phases.