Droplet Evaporation Research Articles

The Preparation of Crumpled Graphene Oxide Balls and Research in Tribological Properties.

In this study, crumpled graphene oxide balls (CGBs) were prepared via capillary compression using a rapidly evaporating aerosol droplet method. The CGBs were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and Raman spectroscopy. The size distributions of crumpled particles were obtained using a laser nanometer particle size analyzer (DLS). The dispersibility of the water and the ionic liquid (IL) was tested by ultrasonic dispersion. The tribological properties of water or ionic liquids containing crumpled graphene oxide ball additives (W/IL-CGB) were tested by a reciprocating friction tester and compared with water/ionic liquids with graphene oxide. The morphology of the wear scar was observed by a three-dimensional optical microscope and its lubrication mechanism was analyzed. The results show that the CGBs were successfully prepared by rapid evaporation of aerosol droplets, and the obtained CGBs were crumpled paper spheres. The CGBs had good water dispersion and ionic liquid dispersion, and IL-CGB has excellent anti-friction and anti-wear effects on steel-steel friction pairs. During the friction process, the CGB was adsorbed at the interface of the steel-steel friction pair to form a protective layer, which avoids the direct contact of the friction pair, thereby reducing friction and wear.

THEORETICAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF A PARABOLIC TROUGH HUMIDIFYING SOLAR COLLECTOR-BASED SOLAR STILL

In this paper, a parabolic trough humidifying solar collector-based solar still (PHSC-SS) is proposed. Its purpose is to apply some important performance improvement techniques to the flat plate humidifying solar collector-based solar still (flat plate HSC-SS), to significantly improve overall system performance. These included the use of parabolic trough solar concentrators and the design of humidifying solar collectors from evacuated tube collectors. The results reveal that, unlike flat plate HSC-SS, which must operate with a turbulent airflow regime to achieve optimum overall performance, PHSC-SS must operate with a laminar airflow regime and high inlet and outlet temperatures of air (at least 55 °C and less than 100 °C, at atmospheric pressure) in the heat collector element. For 900 W/m2 of incident solar irradiance, 2 m2 of solar collector area, and 0,00042 kg/s of air flow rate, the maximum energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and daily freshwater productivity of PHSC-SS were found to be 68,12%, 14,87% and 1,697 kg/h, respectively. Whereas for the same incident solar irradiance and solar collector area, and 0,1 kg/s of air flow rate, those of the flat plat HSC-SS were 72,9%, 1,12%, and between 1,07 – 2,923 kg/h (for inlet and outlet temperatures of air less than 30 °C, at atmospheric pressure), respectively. Although in some extreme cases freshwater productivity of flat plate HSC-SS can be higher than that of PHSC-SS, it should be noted that laminar airflow regime confers great advantages to PHSC-SS. These are higher air temperatures at condenser inlet (which ease water condensation process), no need of an auxiliary cooling device (needed in the flat plate HSC-SS), less mechanical vibrations of system, reduced condenser size, and less energy consumed by air blowers. Furthermore, the upper limit of the PHSC-SS is a PHSC-SS that operates without air flow, but rather by vaporization of water droplets at boiling point from absorber, followed by their suction to condenser, similarly to a flash evaporation.

A biosensor method based on surfactant-mediated surface droplet evaporation for the detection of Aflatoxin B1

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a common mycotoxin that is of significant global concern due to its impact on food safety. Herein, we innovatively develop a sensing platform to detect AFB1 based on evaporation of surfactant solutions on the hydrophobic surface, resulting in dried patterns with varied sizes. The surfactant CTAB solution produces a relatively large dried pattern due to the surface wetting. However, the reduction in the dried pattern size is found when the mixture of CTAB and AFB1 aptamer is tested, because the formation of CTAB/aptamer complex. Moreover, the dried pattern size of the mixture of CTAB, aptamer, and AFB1 increases due to the specific binding of AFB1 to its aptamer. Using this innovative strategy, the AFB1 detection can be fulfilled with a detection limit of 0.77 pg/mL. As a simple, convenient, inexpensive, and label-free method, the surfactant-mediated surface droplet evaporation-based biosensor is very promising for various potential applications.

Marine Stratus—A Boundary-Layer Model

A relatively simple 1D RANS model of the time evolution of the planetary boundary layer is extended to include water vapor and cloud droplets plus transfers between them. Radiative fluxes and flux divergence are also included. An underlying ocean surface is treated as a source of water vapor and as a sink for cloud or fog droplets. With a constant sea surface temperature and a steady wind, initially dry or relatively dry air will moisten, starting at the surface. Turbulent boundary layer mixing will then lead towards a layer with a well-mixed potential temperature (and so temperature decreasing with height) and well-mixed water vapor mixing ratio. As a result, the air will, sooner or later, become saturated at some level, and a stratus cloud will form.

Enhancing dry-out heat flux on nano-SiO2 porous surfaces

In this study, we investigated the heat transfer behavior of droplet evaporation on a heated surface. Hydrophilic surfaces were coated with SiO2 nanoparticles using the sol-gel method. The droplet evaporation process on the heated surface was captured using a high-speed camera. We found that there is a critical value of the liquid film thickness that leads to a higher heat flux at the end of the droplet evaporation process (dry-out). This critical value is known as the dry-out heat flux. The thickness of the liquid film only reached the thin-film region of the evaporation meniscus theory at the end of the evaporation, resulting in strong evaporation and high heat flux. In this study, we observed that the surface exhibited hydrophilic wettability due to the nano-SiO2 porous structure. The dry-out heat flux can be further improved by approximately 30 % at 90 °C on the heated surface. This improvement is attributed to the higher capillary force of the nano-SiO2 porous structure, which increases the interfacial area. Additionally, surfaces heated to the same temperature develop a thinner liquid film, thereby achieving a higher heat flux. This investigation provides guidelines for applications in printing, heat exchangers, and microfluidics.

Water droplet evaporation in varied gravity and electric fields

Sessile water droplet evaporation in varied gravity and electric fields has been experimentally studied. Specifically, the influences of gravity and electric fields are investigated in the context of the heat flux distribution beneath the droplets, as well as the droplet mechanics and resulting shapes. Experimental testing was carried out during a European Space Agency (ESA) Parabolic Flight Campaign (PFC 66). The droplets tested evaporated with a pinned contact line, a single wettability condition, and varied droplet volume and substrate heat flux. The peak heat transfer was located at the contact line for all cases. The peak heat flux, average heat flux, and droplet evaporation rate were shown to vary strongly with gravity, with higher values noted for hypergravity conditions and lower values in microgravity conditions. The droplet thermal inertia was shown to play a significant role, with larger droplets taking more time to reach thermal equilibrium during the parabolic testing period. No significant impact of the electric field on the droplet evaporation was noted for these test conditions.

Effect of the arrangement of the injectors on the flow quantities in water injection into the hot supersonic crossflow inside the cylinder

In this study, the effect of different arrangements of injectors on the injection of liquid water into the hot supersonic crossflow of cylindrical geometry on the performance and the rate of evaporation has been studied using a numerical method. The crossflow has a Mach of about 2 and a total temperature of 800[Formula: see text]K. At first, the penetration height and droplets produced by atomization in the supersonic flow are validated using the Lagrangian technique, and the results have been compared with the experiments. The usage of heat transfer equations and the evaporation model for the spray evaporation of droplets in the hot flow is also performed in the validation process, and the results are compared with the experimental results. Then, the injection into the examined geometry with four, six and eight injectors in three different arrangements was evaluated. The results indicate that employing an arrangement of eight injectors leads to the most significant reduction in total temperature, with average total temperatures decreasing to below 550[Formula: see text]K. The results demonstrate a 40% decrease in total pressure, with a decrease in Mach number to about 1 at the end of the cylinder. Additionally, the evaporation rate shows higher evaporation of water in the eight-injector arrangement compared to other arrangements.

Integrating hydrologic modeling and satellite remote sensing to assess the performance of sprinkler irrigation

ABSTRACT Improving irrigation water management is a key concern for the agricultural sector, and it requires extensive and comprehensive tools that provide a complete knowledge of crop water use and requirements. This study presents a novel methodology to explicitly estimate daily gross and net crop water requirements, actual crop water use, and irrigation efficiency of center pivot irrigation systems, by mainly utilizing the Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) imagery at the farm scale. ETMonitor model is adapted to estimate actual water use (as the sum of canopy transpiration and evaporation of water intercepted by canopy and evaporation from soil) at daily/10-m resolution, benefiting from the high-resolution Sentinel-2 data and thus to assess the irrigation efficiency at the farm scale. The gross irrigation water requirement is estimated from the net crop water requirement and the water loss, including the water droplet evaporation directly into the air during application before droplets fall on the canopy and canopy interception loss. The method was applied to a pilot farmland with two major crops (wheat and potato) in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, where modern equipment and appropriate irrigation methods are deployed for efficient water use. The estimated actual crop water use showed good agreement with the ground observations, e.g. the determination coefficients range from 0.67 to 0.81 and root mean square errors range from 0.56 mm/day to 1.24 mm/day for wheat and potato when comparing the estimated evapotranspiration with the measurement by the eddy covariance system. It also showed that the losses of total irrigated volume were 25.4% for wheat and 23.7% for potato, respectively, and found that the water allocation was insufficient to meet the water requirement in this irrigated area. This suggests that the amount of water applied was insufficient to meet the crop water requirement and the inherent water losses in the center pivot irrigation system, which imply the necessity to improve the irrigation practice to use the water more efficiently.

Modeling the Subgrid-Scale Scalar Variance: A Priori Tests and Application to Supersaturation in Cloud Turbulence

Abstract The subgrid-scale (SGS) scalar variance represents the “unmixedness” of the unresolved small scales in large-eddy simulations (LES) of turbulent flows. Supersaturation variance can play an important role in the activation, growth, and evaporation of cloud droplets in a turbulent environment, and therefore efforts are being made to include SGS supersaturation fluctuations in microphysics models. We present results from a priori tests of SGS scalar variance models using data collected in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in the Michigan Tech Pi chamber for Rayleigh numbers Ra ∼ 108–109. Data from an array of 10 thermistors were spatially filtered and used to calculate the true SGS scalar variance, a scale-similarity model, and a gradient model for dimensionless filter widths of h/Δ = 25, 14.3, and 10 (where h is the height of the chamber and Δ is the spatial filter width). The gradient model was found to have fairly low correlations (ρ ∼ 0.2), with the most probable values departing significantly from the one-to-one line in joint probability density functions (JPDFs). However, the scale-similarity model was found to have good behavior in JPDFs and was highly correlated (ρ ∼ 0.8) with the true SGS variance. Results of the a priori tests were robust across the parameter space considered, with little dependence on Ra and h/Δ. The similarity model, which only requires an additional test filtering operation, is therefore a promising approach for modeling the SGS scalar variance in LES of cloud turbulence and other related flows.

Fabrication and Optical Measurement of a Suspended Particle Monolayer

AbstractThe formation of a particle monolayer after the evaporation of a suspension droplet containing micro/nanoparticles is critical for multiple applications, including cell printing, particle immunoassays, and electronics. However, conventional methods for forming monolayers have limitations in terms of the use of solid substrates to fix them. In this paper, a novel method is proposed for forming a microparticle monolayer suspended in air using a through‐hole chip. Utilizing the strong interactions between particles and solid/liquid interfaces at the microscale, a simple yet robust method is developed to fabricate a suspended monolayer via particle suspension evaporation. The particle layers are classified into four types according to the particle concentration and suspension volume, namely, burst, ring, mono and ring, and multi patterns. Reorganization of the particle monolayer is achieved despite the repetitive solvent reinfusion and evaporation processes. Remarkably, the suspended particle monolayer exhibits superior optical characteristics, with a signal‐to‐noise ratio that is 1.78 times higher in fluorescence measurements than the same particles placed on a glass plate. This suspended particle monolayer can be applied in a variety of fields requiring sensitive and reproducible particle detection.

Interfacial Effects of Nanostructured Doubly Reentrant Surfaces on the Evolution of Local Concentration and Fluid Flow in an Evaporating Droplet.

Surface modification, such as bioinspired nanostructured doubly reentrant surfaces that have presented superhydrophobic wettability even under low-surface-tension liquid, is a very promising technology for controlling droplet dynamics, heat transfer, and evaporation. In this article, we investigate the interfacial effects of nanostructured doubly reentrant surfaces on the flow behaviors and local concentration evolution during the evaporation of an ethanol/water multicomponent droplet. Using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and novel aggregate-induced emission-based (AIE) techniques, the flow patterns and local concentration distributions on both hydrophobic and nanostructured doubly reentrant surfaces were probed and compared. It is found that in addition to the established Marangoni flow-dominated stage, transition stage, and buoyancy-induced flow-dominated stage, a new transition stage and a rolling stage for the nanostructured doubly reentrant surface are detected in the late evaporation period. Differences in the local concentration distribution evolution occur depending on the hydrophobicity of the surface on which the droplet is placed. For the hydrophobic surface, a nonuniform local concentration distribution exists consistently, with a high water fraction in a shell-shaped region near the liquid-air interface and a secondary concentration gradient within this shell-shaped region. The concentration distribution on the nanostructured doubly reentrant surface evolves in a more complex manner, with a strip-shaped region of high water fraction forming in the intermediate stage and then reorganized by rolling flow in the late stage. Finally, theoretical analysis combining PIV and AIE visualization results reveals that the variations in droplet concentration distributions on surfaces with different hydrophobicities exert a significant impact on evaporative behaviors. These behaviors, in turn, affect the evolution of the local concentration distribution.

Modeling of micron-sized aluminum particle combustion in hot gas flow

This paper presents a model for micron-sized aluminum (Al) particle combustion in hot oxidizing environments, forming hollow spheres. The model comprises four sub-models describing the physical and chemical processes during Al combustion: melting of the solid core, ejection of liquid Al droplets from the breaking solid shell, vaporization of liquid droplets, and ignition and establishment of vapor flame surrounding the solid particles. The model is of critical importance when the ambient gas temperature is higher than the melting point of the Al core, Tc,m, but lower than the alumina (Al2O3) shell’s melting point, Ts,m. In the model, the Al core is assumed to be surrounded by a thin, compact alumina shell that blocks the diffusion of oxidizer into the core and prevents surface reactions. The alumina shell’s cracking and liquid Al’s eruption are triggered by thermal expansion and pressure buildup in the liquid core. The splashed liquid Al droplets vaporize quickly and initiate gas-phase reactions, followed by the vaporization of the liquid Al core as the particle temperature Tp increases. Al vapor combustion heat is redistributed to simulate the gaseous flame near the particle. The model is implemented using the Lagrangian particle tracking method and is validated through simulations of micron-sized Al particle combustion in hot gas and comparison with experiments. The results can explain the formation of the sharp-edged holes on hollow aluminum oxide spheres and the ignition behavior observed in the experiments.

Construction of an Au/g-C3N4/GO/Au substrate by a layer-by-layer assembly approach for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

In this work, an Au/g-C3N4/GO/Au hybrid nanofilm for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate application was prepared by a facile layer-by-layer assembly technique using nanosheet-structured graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), graphene oxide (GO) and 40 nm-gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). The effects of composition, assembly sequence and assembly cycles on the SERS performance were optimized to achieve the SERS-active substrate. The detection limit of Au/g-C3N4/GO/Au substrate for crystal violet and rhodamine 6 G probe molecules reached as high as 10−8 M, with good stability and uniformity. Its further application in food colorants detection (erythrosine, carmine and temptation red) had successfully met the national food safety standards and the quantitative detection for erythrosine and temptation red had also been established. Based on finite-difference time-domain element simulation and density functional theory quantum chemical calculation, the mechanism of the SERS effect of the substrate was unveiled, which is attributed to the combination of electromagnetic enhancement effect of Au nanoparticle aggregates and chemical enhancement effect of GO and g-C3N4. Notably, water droplet evaporation induced Raman enhancement was observed on the Au/g-C3N4/GO/Au substrate. This can be ascribed to the inhomogeneous evaporation of the droplet that promotes the enrichment of the probe molecules into the center of the droplet. This novel enhancement strategy provides a new idea for further improving detection sensitivity of SERS substrate materials.

Real-Time Monitoring of the Evaporation and Fission of Electrospray-Ionized Polystyrene Beads and Bacterial Pellets at Elevated Temperatures.

This study uses real-time monitoring, at microsecond time scales, with a charge-sensing particle detector to investigate the evaporation and fission processes of methanol/micrometer-sized polystyrene beads (PS beads) droplets and bacterial particles droplets generated via electrospray ionization (ESI) under elevated temperatures. By incrementally raising capillary temperatures, the solvent, such as methanol on 0.75 μm PS beads, experiences partial evaporation. Further temperature increase induces fission, and methanol molecules continue to evaporate until PS ions are detected after this range. Similar partial evaporation is observed on 3 μm PS beads. However, the shorter period of the fission temperature range is necessary compared to 0.75 μm PS beads. For the spherical-shaped bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, the desolvation process shows a similar fission period as compared to 0.75 μm PS beads. Comparably, the rod-shaped bacteria, Escherichia coli EC11303, and E. coli strain W have shorter fission periods than S. aureus. This research provides insights into the evaporation and fission mechanisms of ESI droplets containing different sizes and shapes of micrometer-sized particles, contributing to a better understanding of gaseous macroion formation.

Effect of flame characteristics on an isolated ethanol droplet evaporating through stagnation methane/air flames: An experimental and numerical study

A single ethanol droplet evaporation through laminar methane/air stagnation flame is investigated at lean, stoichiometric and rich conditions experimentally and numerically. For the droplets having initial diameters of 20-70μm, the particle Reynolds number is measured via PIV/PTV, resulting in the slip velocity between the droplet and gas flow being small and the surrounding gas being able to carry without any significant convective effects. Evaporation rates, computed from Abramzon–Sirignano for a moving droplet towards a stagnation flame field, satisfy the ones computed from empirically determined evaporation rates from ILIDS measurements as a function of flame temperature, flame speed and flame thickness. Nevertheless, Abramzon–Sirignano model slightly overestimates the vaporization constant for lean cases. The distance traveled by the droplet after leaving the flame zone determines the average critical diameter. Accordingly, droplets larger than 18μm can cross the flame, leading to local modifications in the flame region due to heat loss and vapor diffusion from the droplet. Novelty and Significance Energy conversion in combustion should be carried out by optimizing efficiency, minimizing pollution, and preventing further climate change. The multiphase nature of spray combustion particularly adds further complexity due to the strong coupling of atomization, evaporation, mixing, turbulence, and chemical reactions. Although spray combustion involves a cloud of polydispersed droplets, it is of fundamental importance to understand the dynamics of an isolated droplet and its interactions with the flame front, which can provide indispensable information for spray combustion models. In this study, an experimental and computational framework has been developed to investigate droplet-flame interactions. The dynamics and evaporation characteristics of an isolated droplets interacting with stagnation flames have been determined by coupling several laser diagnostics, while further enhanced with Eulerian–Lagrangian simulations under flame conditions. Thereupon, the outcomes help the design of injectors of spray combustion systems and enhancement of evaporation models.

Effect of Heating Surface Geometry on the Droplets Evaporation under Leidenfrost Conditions

Physical and geometric factors are generally regarded as the main cause of evaporation characteristics of the Leidenfrost droplets levitating above the hot surface. It is well-known and generally accepted that similar research is conducted under different conditions and on individual measurement set-ups. This is one of the potential reasons for the differences in the results of thermal fluxes and computational models in scientific papers. This paper discusses the influence of the heating surface geometry on the heat transfer coefficient h during water drops evaporation under film boiling regime. The variable geometry parameters are the curvature radius of the heating bowl of R = 64 and 254 mm. Individually compiled test stands made it possible to measure the instantaneous drop mass for each R radius and to determine the coefficient h. The methodology was validated by calculating the relative error. It changes with the curvature radius and the droplet size, and for droplet mass from about 2 g to 0.3 g does not exceed ±10%. The heat transfer coefficient h is about 15% higher for a drop located on a surface with a larger radius of curvature. Moreover, the method that was devised allows us to estimate the h value for asymmetric droplet shapes. The advantage of the adopted method of measuring the drop mass over time is the possibility of analyzing heat transfer processes in any drop shape range, even in the case of asymmetric ones. Previous research methods were mainly based on determining the mass of the drop by calculating its volume.

Investigation of the simultaneous effect of fouling and ambient conditions on cooling performance and water consumption of a wet cooling tower

The cooling performance and water consumption of the wet cooling tower are two important parameters that must be balanced to achieve the optimum performance of this industrial component in its operating condition. The performance of the wet cooling towers can be analyzed by the thermodynamic models. On the other hand, fouling can drastically affect the cooling tower performance. In the present research, a thermodynamic model is developed and validated with numerical and experimental results in order to investigate the wet cooling tower's water consumption and cooling performance under various weather conditions. The model includes an accurate cooling tower model, considering the buoyancy force and droplets evaporation in the rain and spray zones. To achieve accurate results, an optimization algorithm is also utilized to solve the equations. This model was then applied to analyze the water consumption and cooling performance of a small cooling tower during the hottest months of Iran (July/August) in Ahvaz, Tabriz, and Yazd with different climate conditions. The non-dimensional parameter of the fill performance index (ηF) was used to describe the fouling in the packing. So, considering the simultaneous effects of the buoyancy force and droplet evaporation in the rain and spray zones and fouling in packing in the developed model, with utilizing a new and accurate method to solve the model's equation to analyze the performance of the wet cooling towers under different conditions, are the novelty of this study. Based on the results, a rise in fouling decreases the fill performance index. A decline in the fill performance index from 2.4 to 1.2 increases the monthly average of the cooling tower outlet water temperature from 24.24, 21.21, and 21.19 °C to 25.94, 24.14, and 24.11 °C in Ahvaz, Tabriz, and Yazd, respectively, while the monthly water consumption decreases from 1.74, 1.87, and 2.22 m3h to 0.99, 1.10, and 1.29 m3h in the mentioned cities, respectively. The maximum outlet water temperature was observed in case ηF=1.2, while the maximum water consumption occurred in ηF=2.4. So, ambient conditions and fouling simultaneously affect the performance of the cooling tower, which is well predicted by the suggested model.

Field evidence of brown carbon absorption enhancement linked to organic nitrogen formation in Indo-Gangetic Plain

Atmospheric brown carbon (BrC), a short-lived climate forcer, absorbs solar radiation and is a substantial contributor to the warming of the Earth's atmosphere. BrC composition, its absorption properties, and their evolution are poorly represented in climate models, especially during atmospheric aqueous events such as fog and clouds. These aqueous events, especially fog, are quite prevalent during wintertime in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and involve several stages (e.g., activation, formation, and dissipation, etc.), resulting in a large variation of relative humidity (RH) in the atmosphere. The huge RH variability allowed us to examine the evolution of water-soluble brown carbon (WS-BrC) diurnally and as a function of aerosol liquid water content (ALWC) and RH in this study. We explored links between the evolution of WS-BrC mass absorption efficiency at 365 nm (MAEWS-BrC-365) and chemical characteristics, viz., low-volatility organics and water-soluble organic nitrogen (WSON) to water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) ratio (org-N/C), in the field (at Kanpur in central IGP) for the first time worldwide. We observed that WSON formation governed enhancement in MAEWS-BrC-365 diurnally (except during the afternoon) in the IGP. During the afternoon, the WS-BrC photochemical bleaching dwarfed the absorption enhancement caused by WSON formation. Further, both MAEWS-BrC-365 and org-N/C ratio increased with a decrease in ALWC and RH in this study, signifying that evaporation of fog droplets or bulk aerosol particles accelerated the formation of nitrogen-containing organic chromophores, resulting in the enhancement of WS-BrC absorptivity. The direct radiative forcing of WS-BrC relative to that of elemental carbon (EC) was ∼19 % during wintertime in Kanpur, and ∼ 40 % of this contribution was in the UV-region. These findings highlight the importance of further examining the links between the evolution of BrC absorption behavior and chemical composition in the field and incorporating it in the BrC framework of climate models to constrain the predictions.

Wetting geometry and deposition patterns manipulation with bi-dispersed particle-laden droplets

Polygonal deposition through evaporation of the suspension droplets holds promise for printing applications. The distinctive edges present in polygonal droplets offer the potential to enhance printing resolution and enable the fabrication of diverse thin depositions. Prior investigations revolve one dimensional control with the types of wetting geometries and deposition patterns initiate from different driving factors. The current study delves into the synergistic interplay between a bi-dispersed suspension mixing ratio and particle concentration, as they collectively influence the deposition pattern of octagonal droplets formed using a micropyramid cavity patterned substrate. The investigation culminates in the development of a comprehensive phase diagram categorizing four distinct types of deposition: octagonal outer-ring deposition, octagonal ring with irregular features, octagonal uniform deposition, and central deposition. Specifically, octagonal outer-ring deposition is observed when droplets consist predominantly of 3μm particles at lower concentrations. In cases where a suspension contains 10μm particles, an intermediate concentration exceeding 50% gives a rise to the octagonal outer-ring deposition intermingled with irregular features. The octagonal uniform deposition emerges when 3μm particles, co-aggregated with 10μm particles, are compelled to settle at the deposition center within the mixture at the 3:1 ratio at 1.0 wt% and 2.6 wt%. Notably, the “curvature effect”, exhibited by the aggregates adhering to the liquid–air interface, counter-intuitively suppresses octagonal deposition despite the presence of octagonal wetting geometry and forms the central deposition. In summary, the study introduces a robust method to achieve the uniform deposition and proposes a scalable and flexible strategy for generating diverse deposition types through the judicious mixing of two suspension solutions at distinct weight ratios.

Characterizing the Microparticles Deposition Structure and its Photonic Nature in Surfactant-Laden Evaporating Colloidal Sessile Droplets.

This work presents a simple method to create photonic microstructures via the natural evaporation of surfactant-laden colloidal sessile droplets on a flat substrate. In the absence of dissolved surfactant, the evaporating colloidal droplet forms a well-known coffee ring deposition. In contrast, the presence of surfactant leads to the formation of multiple ring structures due to the repetitive pinning-depinning behavior of the droplet contact line (CL). It is found that the multiring structure shows vibrant iridescent structural colors while the coffee ring lacks a photonic nature. This difference in the structural color for the presence and absence of the surfactant is found to be dependent on the arrangement of the particles in the deposition structure. The particle arrangement in the multirings is monolayered and well-ordered. The ordering of the particles is strongly influenced by the particle dynamics, contact angle (CA), and CL dynamics of the evaporating colloidal solution droplet. Furthermore, the iridescent nature of the multiring deposition is demonstrated and explained. The dependence of the multiring deposition structure on the concentration of the dissolved surfactant and the suspended particles is also studied. The findings demonstrate that an intermediate surfactant concentration is desirable for the formation of a multiring structure. Further, the pinning-depinning CL dynamics that causes the formation of the multiring deposition structure is discussed. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of the approach to smaller droplet volumes.