Near-critical spreading of droplets

Raphael Saiseau (), Christian Pedersen, Anwar Benjana, Andreas Carlson, Ulysse Delabre, Thomas Salez () and Jean-Pierre Delville ()
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Raphael Saiseau: UMR 5798
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

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35047-1

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