Khellil Sefiane

Stick-slip of evaporating droplets: substrate hydrophobicity and nanoparticle concentration.

The dynamics of the three-phase contact line for water and ethanol is experimentally investigated using substrates of various hydrophobicities. Different evolutions of the droplet profile (contact line, R, and contact angle, θ) are found to be dependent on the hydrophobicity of the substrate. A simple theoretical approach based on the unbalanced Young force is used to explain the depinning of the contact line on hydrophilic surfaces or the monotonic slip on hydrophobic substrates. The second part of the article involves the addition of different quantities of titanium oxide nanoparticles to water, and a comparison of the evaporative behavior of these novel fluids with the base liquid (water) on substrates varying in hydrophobicity (i.e., silicon, Cytop, and PTFE) is presented. The observed stick-slip behavior is found to be dependent on the nanoparticle concentration. The evaporation rate is closely related to the dynamics of the contact line. These findings may have an important impact when considering the evaporation of droplets on different substrates and/or those containing nanoparticles.

Effect of TiO2 Nanoparticles on Contact Line Stick−Slip Behavior of Volatile Drops

We describe an experimental investigation of the concomitant evaporation and (de)wetting behavior of sessile drops of ethanol, either pure, or containing small amounts of titanium oxide nanoparticles. Pure ethanol behaved in a more or less ideal manner, with constantly decreasing contact radius, at essentially constant contact angle. However, distinct stick-slip pinning behavior of the triple line occurred when nanoparticles were added to the base liquid. Increased nanoparticle concentration enhanced the stick-slip behavior. The observed behavior is attributed to the effects of particle accumulation near the contact line, caused by the now-established advective flow during evaporation. Slip behavior can be explained by hysteretic energy barriers, somewhat akin to line tension. The stick behavior was not complete: some triple line drift occurred (pseudo-pinning). It is postulated that this may be due to small-scale pinning of the triple line by deposited particles, or to increased effective viscosity due to high, local nanoparticle concentrations.

On the effect of the atmosphere on the evaporation of sessile droplets of water

An experimental and theoretical study of the effect of the atmosphere on the evaporation of pinned sessile droplets of water is described. The experimental work investigated the evaporation rates of sessile droplets in atmospheres of three different ambient gases (namely, helium, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide) at reduced pressure (from 40 to 1000 mbars) using four different substrates (namely, aluminum, titanium, Macor, and polytetrafluoroethylene) with a wide range of thermal conductivities. Reducing the atmospheric pressure increases the diffusion coefficient of water vapor in the atmosphere and hence increases the evaporation rate. Changing the ambient gas also alters the diffusion coefficient and hence also affects the evaporation rate. A mathematical model that takes into account the effect of the atmospheric pressure and the nature of the ambient gas on the diffusion of water vapor in the atmosphere and the thermal conductivity of the substrate is developed, and its predictions are found to be in enc...

Dependence of Volatile Droplet Lifetime on the Hydrophobicity of the Substrate

In this Article, we demonstrate the dependence of the lifetime of a volatile droplet on the hydrophobicity of the substrate. Ethanol droplets placed on the molecularly smooth surfaces of three polymers, applied to substrates by spin-coating, showed distinct types of behavior depending on the hydrophobicity of the latter. High contact angles, θ, lead to fairly regular recession of the triple line during liquid evaporation at essentially constant θ, whereas low contact angle caused pinning, θ decreasing with time. The latter case leads to shorter drop lifetimes.

Evaporation of Droplets on Strongly Hydrophobic Substrates

The manner in which the extreme modes of droplet evaporation (namely, the constant contact radius and the constant contact angle modes) become indistinguishable on strongly hydrophobic substrates is described. Simple asymptotic expressions are obtained which provide good approximations to the evolutions of the contact radius, the contact angle, and the volume of droplets evaporating in the extreme modes for a wide range of hydrophobic substrates. As a consequence, on strongly hydrophobic substrates it is appropriate to use the so-called 2/3 power law to extrapolate the lifetimes of droplets evaporating in the constant contact radius mode as well as in the constant contact angle mode.

Biodrop Evaporation and Ring-Stain Deposits: The Significance of DNA Length.

Small sessile drops of water containing either long or short strands of DNA (biodrops) were deposited on silicon substrates and allowed to evaporate. Initially, the triple line (TL) of both types of droplet remained pinned but later receded. The TL recession mode continued at constant speed until almost the end of drop lifetime for the biodrops with short DNA strands, whereas those containing long DNA strands entered a regime of significantly lower TL recession. We propose a tentative explanation of our observations based on free energy barriers to unpinning and increases in the viscosity of the base liquid due to the presence of DNA molecules. In addition, the structure of DNA deposits after evaporation was investigated by AFM. DNA self-assembly in a series of perpendicular and parallel orientations was observed near the contact line for the long-strand DNA, while, with the short-stranded DNA, smoother ring-stains with some nanostructuring but no striations were evident. At the interior of the deposits, dendritic and faceted crystals were formed from short and long strands, respectively, due to diffusion and nucleation limited processes, respectively. We suggest that the above results related to the biodrop drying and nanostructuring are indicative of the importance of DNA length, i.e., longer DNA chains consisting of linearly bonded shorter, rod-like DNA strands.

On the linear dependence of a carbon nanofiber thermal conductivity on wall thickness

Thermal transport in carbon nanofibers (CNFs) was thoroughly investigated. In particular, individual CNFs were suspended on T-type heat nanosensors and their thermal conductivity was measured over a range of temperatures. Unexpectedly, thermal conductivity was found to be dependent on CNF wall thickness and ranging between ca. 28 and 43 W/(m⋅K). Further investigation of the CNF walls with high resolution electron microscopy allowed us to propose a tentative description of how wall structure affects phonon heat transport inside CNFs. The lower thermal conductivities, compared to other CNTs, was attributed to unique CNF wall structure. Additionally, wall thickness is related to the conducting lattice length of each constituent graphene cone and comparable to the Umklapp length. Hence, as the wall thickness and thus lattice length increases there is a higher probability for phonon scattering to the next layer.

Superstable Ultrathin Water Film Confined in a Hydrophilized Carbon Nanotube

Fluids confined in a nanoscale space behave differently than in the bulk due to strong interactions between fluid molecules and solid atoms. Here, we observed water confined inside open hydrophilized carbon nanotubes (CNT), with diameter of tens of nanometers, using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A 1-7 nm water film adhering to most of the inner wall surface was observed and remained stable in the high vacuum (order of 10-5 Pa) of the TEM. The superstability of this film was attributed to a combination of curvature, nanoroughness, and confinement resulting in a lower vapor pressure for water and hence inhibiting its vaporization. Occasional, suspended ultrathin water film with thickness of 3-20 nm were found and remained stable inside the CNT. This film thickness is 1 order of magnitude smaller than the critical film thickness (about 40 nm) reported by the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory and previous experimental investigations. The stability of the suspended ultrathin water film is attributed to the additional molecular interactions due to the extended water meniscus, which balances the rest of the disjoining pressures.

Influence of Local Heating on Marangoni Flows and Evaporation Kinetics of Pure Water Drops

The effect of localized heating on the evaporation of pure sessile water drops was probed experimentally by a combination of infrared thermography and optical imaging. In particular, we studied the effect of three different heating powers and two different locations, directly below the center and edge of the drop. In all cases, four distinct stages were identified according to the emerging thermal patterns. In particular, depending on heating location, recirculating vortices emerge that either remain pinned or move azimuthally within the drop. Eventually, these vortices oscillate in different modes depending on heating location. Infrared data allowed extraction of temperature distribution on each drop surface. In turn, the flow velocity in each case was calculated and was found to be higher for edge heating, due to the one-directional nature of the heating. Additionally, calculation of the dimensionless Marangoni and Rayleigh numbers yielded the prevalence of Marangoni convection. Heating the water drops also affected the evaporation kinetics by promoting the stick-slip regime. Moreover, both the total number of depinning events and the pinning strength were found to be highly dependent on heating location. Lastly, we report a higher than predicted relationship between evaporation rate and heating temperature, due to the added influence of the recirculating flows on temperature distribution and hence evaporation flux.

Thermography Applied to Interfacial Phenomena, Potentials and Pitfalls

Infrared (IR) thermography is a non-intrusive method for temperature measurement. Its ability to produce two-dimensional temperature images makes it a powerful tool for investigating systems exhibiting spatial variation of temperature. IR temperature measurements are almost always surface measurements; the technique has therefore found use in obtaining interfacial temperatures, primarily in heat and mass transfer investigations. The reasons for the technique’s limited uptake likely stems from the requirement of accurate material emissivity data and the large number of potential sources of error. This chapter provides an overview of the underlying theory of radiative heat transfer. Key considerations and problems in the application of IR thermography are discussed with reference to some examples of recent successful applications.