Thermodiffusion, also called thermal diffusion or the Ludwig–Soret effect, describes the
coupling between a temperature gradient and a resulting mass flux in a multicomponent
system. Although Ludwig and Soret discovered the effect in the 19th century, there
is so far no molecular understanding of thermodiffusion in liquids. In the past
decade the Ludwig–Soret effect has attracted growing interest due to improved
experimental techniques, especially modern optical methods, which will be discussed and
compared. On the basis of theoretical models, simulations and recent experiments
we elucidate some properties and mechanisms contributing to the Soret effect.