Marangoni-driven instability patterns of an N-hexadecane drop triggered by assistant solvent

Abstract

Flows of thin fluid layers spreading, which have a distinguished history, have been studied since the days of Reynolds, who was among the early researchers to examine flows. Different from surfactant-driven spreading, which is currently the most common subject of study, we observe the spreading process of n-hexadecane driven by volatile silicone oil at the surface of the aqueous substrates and explore the influence of Marangoni flow caused by surface tension gradient on liquid-driven spreading. We find that on different substrates, the initial state of n-hexadecane is different, and there are two instability patterns during the spreading, subsequently, which are analyzed theoretically. While the n-hexadecane drop stationed on the liquid surface is small, it is driven to form a rim and then breaks up into beads, which shows the Rayleigh–Plateau instability patterns. When we put the n-hexadecane drop on the surface of the saturated sodium chloride solution, which spreads out more, it is driven to form a circular belt first and fingering instability subsequently occurs at the inner edge of the circular belt.