IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-35047-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Near-critical spreading of droplets

Author

Listed:
  • Raphael Saiseau

    (UMR 5798
    Université Paris Cité)

  • Christian Pedersen

    (University of Oslo)

  • Anwar Benjana

    (UMR 5798)

  • Andreas Carlson

    (University of Oslo)

  • Ulysse Delabre

    (UMR 5798)

  • Thomas Salez

    (UMR 5798)

  • Jean-Pierre Delville

    (UMR 5798)

Abstract

We study the spreading of droplets in a near-critical phase-separated liquid mixture, using a combination of experiments, lubrication theory and finite-element numerical simulations. The classical Tanner’s law describing the spreading of viscous droplets is robustly verified when the critical temperature is neared. Furthermore, the microscopic cut-off length scale emerging in this law is obtained as a single free parameter for each given temperature. In total-wetting conditions, this length is interpreted as the thickness of the thin precursor film present ahead of the apparent contact line. The collapse of the different evolutions onto a single Tanner-like master curve demonstrates the universality of viscous spreading before entering in the fluctuation-dominated regime. Finally, our results reveal a counter-intuitive and sharp thinning of the precursor film when approaching the critical temperature, which is attributed to the vanishing spreading parameter at the critical point.

Suggested Citation

  • Raphael Saiseau & Christian Pedersen & Anwar Benjana & Andreas Carlson & Ulysse Delabre & Thomas Salez & Jean-Pierre Delville, 2022. "Near-critical spreading of droplets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35047-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35047-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35047-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-35047-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35047-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.