This study constitutes an experimental investigation into the convective boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux (CHF) of methanol-water mixtures in a diverging microchannel with artificial cavities. Flow visualization shows that bubbles are generally nucleated at both the artificial cavities and side walls of the channel. This confirms the proper functioning of such artificial cavities. Consequently, the wall superheat of the onset nucleate boiling is significantly reduced. Experimental results show that the boiling heat transfer and CHF are significantly influenced by the molar fraction (x(m)) as well as the mass flux. The CHF increases with an increase in mass flux at the same molar fraction. On the other hand, the CHF increases slightly from x(m) = 0 to 0.3, and then decreases rapidly from x(m) = 0.3 to 1 at the same mass flux. The maximum CHF is reached at x(m) = 0.3, particularly for a mass flux of 175 kg/m(2)s, due to the Marangoni effect. Flow visualization confirms that the Marangoni effect helps a region with a liquid film breakup persist to a higher heat flux, and therefore a higher CHF. Moreover, a new empirical correlation involving the Marangoni effect for the CHF on the flow boiling of methanol-water mixtures is developed. The present correlation prediction shows excellent agreement with the experimental data, and further confirms that the present correlation may predict the Marangoni effect on the CHF for the convective boiling heat transfer of binary mixtures. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.