Liquid-vapor Interfacial Tension Research Articles

Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of H2O + NaCl from Polarizable Force Fields.

Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations were performed to obtain thermodynamic and transport properties of the binary H2O + NaCl system using the polarizable force fields of Kiss and Baranyai ( J. Chem. Phys. 2013 , 138 , 204507 and 2014 , 141 , 114501 ). In particular, liquid densities, electrolyte and crystal chemical potentials of NaCl, salt solubilities, mean ionic activity coefficients, vapor pressures, vapor-liquid interfacial tensions, and viscosities were obtained as functions of temperature, pressure, and salt concentration. We compared the performance of the polarizable force fields against fixed-point-charge (nonpolarizable) models. Most of the properties of interest are better represented by the polarizable models, which also remain physically realistic at elevated temperatures.

SAFT-γ force field for the simulation of molecular fluids: 4. A single-site coarse-grained model of water applicable over a wide temperature range

In this work, we develop coarse-grained (CG) force fields for water, where the effective CG intermolecular interactions between particles are estimated from an accurate description of the macroscopic experimental vapour–liquid equilibria data by means of a molecular-based equation of state. The statistical associating fluid theory for Mie (generalised Lennard-Jones) potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR Mie) is used to parameterise spherically symmetrical (isotropic) force fields for water. The resulting SAFT-γ CG models are based on the Mie (8-6) form with size and energy parameters that are temperature dependent; the latter dependence is a consequence of the angle averaging of the directional polar interactions present in water. At the simplest level of CG where a water molecule is represented as a single bead, it is well known that an isotropic potential cannot be used to accurately reproduce all of the thermodynamic properties of water simultaneously. In order to address this deficiency, we propose two CG potential models of water based on a faithful description of different target properties over a wide range of temperatures: our CGW1-vle model is parameterised to match the saturated-liquid density and vapour pressure; our other CGW1-ift model is parameterised to match the saturated-liquid density and vapour–liquid interfacial tension. A higher level of CG corresponding to two water molecules per CG bead is also considered: the corresponding CGW2-bio model is developed to reproduce the saturated-liquid density and vapour–liquid interfacial tension in the physiological temperature range, and is particularly suitable for the large-scale simulation of bio-molecular systems. A critical comparison of the phase equilibrium and transport properties of the proposed force fields is made with the more traditional atomistic models.

The non-ideal behaviour of the interfacial tension of the n-heptane + perfluoro-n-hexane mixture: A computational study

Computer simulations of the n-heptane+perfluoro-n-hexane system is used to understand the unusual behaviour of the horizontal inflection of the vapour–liquid interfacial tension experiments of alkanes–perfluoroalkanes mixtures. Simulations are conducted and good agreement with experiments is obtained. From the results a change in curvature to a nearly constant value in the tensions at high perfluoro-n-hexane compositions is identified. Dynamic, thermodynamic and structural properties are analysed in that region and peculiar tendencies of those properties are found which help us to understand the nature of the uncommon inflection in the isotherms.

Determination of interfacial tension of binary mixtures from perturbative approaches

We determine the interfacial properties of mixtures of spherical Lennard-Jones molecules from direct simulation of the vapour–liquid interface. We consider mixtures with same molecular size but different dispersive energy parameter values. We use the extensions of the improved version of the inhomogeneous long-range corrections of Janeček, presented recently by MacDowell and Blas and Martínez-Ruiz et al., to deal with the interaction energy and microscopic components of the pressure tensor. We have performed Monte Carlo simulations in the canonical ensemble to obtain the interfacial properties of mixtures of Lennard-Jones molecules with a cut-off distance rc = 3σ in combination with the inhomogeneous long-range corrections. The pressure tensor is obtained using the mechanical (virial) and thermodynamic route. The vapour–liquid interfacial tension is also evaluated using three different procedures, the Irving–Kirkwood method, the difference between the macroscopic components of the pressure tensor, and the test-area methodology. This allows to check the validity of the recent extensions presented to deal with the contributions due to long-range corrections for intermolecular energy and pressure tensor in the case of binary mixtures. In addition to the pressure tensor and the surface tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, and interfacial thickness as functions of pressure, at a given temperature. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the ratio between the dispersive energy parameters of the mixture, ε22/ε11, is to sharpen the vapour–liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. Particularly interesting is the presence of a relative maximum in the density profiles of the less volatile component at the interface. This maximum is related with adsorption or accumulation of these molecules at the interface, a direct consequence of stronger attractive interactions between these molecules in comparison with the rest of intermolecular interactions. In addition to that, the interfacial thickness decreases, the width of the tangential microscopic component of the pressure tensor profile increases, and the surface tension increases as ε22/ε11 is larger.

Molecular simulation of thermodynamic and transport properties for the H2O+NaCl system.

Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out to obtain thermodynamic and transport properties of the binary mixture H2O+NaCl at temperatures from T = 298 to 473 K. In particular, vapor pressures, liquid densities, viscosities, and vapor-liquid interfacial tensions have been obtained as functions of pressure and salt concentration. Several previously proposed fixed-point-charge models that include either Lennard-Jones (LJ) 12-6 or exponential-6 (Exp6) functional forms to describe non-Coulombic interactions were studied. In particular, for water we used the SPC and SPC/E (LJ) models in their rigid forms, a semiflexible version of the SPC/E (LJ) model, and the Errington-Panagiotopoulos Exp6 model; for NaCl, we used the Smith-Dang and Joung-Cheatham (LJ) parameterizations as well as the Tosi-Fumi (Exp6) model. While none of the model combinations are able to reproduce simultaneously all target properties, vapor pressures are well represented using the SPC plus Joung-Cheathem model combination, and all LJ models do well for the liquid density, with the semiflexible SPC/E plus Joung-Cheatham combination being the most accurate. For viscosities, the combination of rigid SPC/E plus Smith-Dang is the best alternative. For interfacial tensions, the combination of the semiflexible SPC/E plus Smith-Dang or Joung-Cheatham gives the best results. Inclusion of water flexibility improves the mixture densities and interfacial tensions, at the cost of larger deviations for the vapor pressures and viscosities. The Exp6 water plus Tosi-Fumi salt model combination was found to perform poorly for most of the properties of interest, in particular being unable to describe the experimental trend for the vapor pressure as a function of salt concentration.

Effect of dispersive long-range corrections to the pressure tensor: the vapour-liquid interfacial properties of the Lennard-Jones system revisited.

We propose an extension of the improved version of the inhomogeneous long-range corrections of Janeček [J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 6264-6269 (2006)], presented recently by MacDowell and Blas [J. Chem. Phys. 131, 074705 (2009)] to account for the intermolecular potential energy of spherical, rigid, and flexible molecular systems, to deal with the contributions to the microscopic components of the pressure tensor due to the dispersive long-range corrections. We have performed Monte Carlo simulations in the canonical ensemble to obtain the interfacial properties of spherical Lennard-Jones molecules with different cutoff distances, r(c) = 2.5, 3, 4, and 5σ. In addition, we have also considered cutoff distances r(c) = 2.5 and 3σ in combination with the inhomogeneous long-range corrections proposed in this work. The normal and tangential microscopic components of the pressure tensor are obtained using the mechanical or virial route in combination with the recipe of Irving and Kirkwood, while the macroscopic components are calculated using the Volume Perturbation thermodynamic route proposed by de Miguel and Jackson [J. Chem. Phys. 125, 164109 (2006)]. The vapour-liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using three different procedures, the Irving-Kirkwood method, the difference between the macroscopic components of the pressure tensor, and the Test-Area methodology. In addition to the pressure tensor and the surface tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, vapour pressure, critical temperature and density, and interfacial thickness as functions of temperature, paying particular attention to the effect of the cutoff distance and the long-range corrections on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the cutoff distance (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapour-liquid interface, to decrease the vapour pressure, and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases, the width of the tangential microscopic component of the pressure tensor profile increases, and the surface tension increases as the cutoff distance is larger. We have also checked the effect of the impulsive contribution to the pressure due to the discontinuity of the intermolecular interaction potential when it is cut. If this contribution is not accounted for in the calculation of the microscopic components of the pressure tensor, incorrect values of both components as well as a wrong structure along the vapour-liquid interface are obtained.

Circular plate deformed by a sessile droplet

Deformation of circular plates including clamped circular plate and simply supported circular plate induced by a sessile droplet is studied using linear, elastic, small-deflection theory for plate bending. In the theoretical analysis, it is assumed that the liquid–vapor interface has a thickness of 16 nm and liquid–vapor interfacial tension is uniformly distributed over a narrow area. Using superposition method, the theoretical solutions of the deflections of both plates are derived and agree well with the numeric solutions. Numerical simulation results show that when there is a sessile center-aligning droplet on the upper surface of the plates, the plates will bend downward and there are maximum deflections at the center of the wetted area, which are nearly proportional to . Moreover, 3D numerical simulations are made to discuss the effect of plate thickness on surface deformation and found that the surface deformation, decreases with increasing plate thickness. When the plate thickness exceeds the saturated value, it can be regarded as a plate with infinite thickness.

Effect of molecular flexibility of Lennard-Jones chains on vapor-liquid interfacial properties

We have determined the interfacial properties of short fully flexible chains formed from tangentially bonded Lennard-Jones monomeric units from direct simulation of the vapor-liquid interface. The results obtained are compared with those corresponding to rigid-linear chains formed from the same chain length, previously determined in the literature [F. J. Blas, A. I. M.-V. Bravo, J. M. Míguez, M. M. Piñeiro, and L. G. MacDowell, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 084706 (2012)]. The full long-range tails of the potential are accounted for by means of an improved version of the inhomogeneous long-range corrections of Janeček [J. Phys. Chem. B 129, 6264 (2006)] proposed recently by MacDowell and Blas [J. Chem. Phys. 131, 074705 (2008)] valid for spherical as well as for rigid and flexible molecular systems. Three different model systems comprising of 3, 5, and 6 monomers per molecule are considered. The simulations are performed in the canonical ensemble, and the vapor-liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using the test-area method. In addition to the surface tension, we also obtained density profiles, coexistence densities, critical temperature and density, and interfacial thickness as functions of temperature, paying particular attention to the effect of the chain length and rigidity on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the chain length (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapor-liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases and the surface tension increases as the molecular chains get longer. Comparison between predictions for fully flexible and rigid-linear chains, formed by the same number of monomeric units, indicates that the main effects of increasing the flexibility, i.e., passing from a rigid-linear to a fully flexible chain, are: (a) to decrease the difference between the liquid and vapor densities; (b) to decrease the critical temperature and to increase the critical density; (c) to smooth the density profiles along the interfacial region; (d) to increase the interfacial thickness; and (e) to decrease the vapor-liquid surface tension.

Molecular dynamics analysis on wetting and interfacial properties of water-alcohol mixture droplets on a solid surface.

Molecular dynamics simulations of single water, water-methanol, or water-IPA (isopropyl-alcohol) mixture droplets on a solid surface were performed with various mixture ratios. An increase in alcohol fraction generally gave an increase in droplet wettability. Both methanol and IPA molecules showed a strong preference to gather at various interfaces, with methanol molecules also showing a tendency to diffuse into the droplet bulk. Specific interfacial tensions were investigated using quasi-one-dimensional simulation systems, and liquid-vapor and solid-liquid interfacial tensions were found to decrease greatly due to the presence of interfacial alcohol, while solid-vapor interfacial tensions were proved to have little influence on wettability. Young's relation was found to hold quantitatively well for both water-methanol and water-IPA droplets. The validity of using Bakker's equation on solid-liquid interfaces was also investigated, and it was shown that for tightly spaced crystal surfaces, the introduced uncertainly is small.

Three-Dimensional Density Functional Study of Heterogeneous Nucleation of Droplets on Solid Surfaces

We present a three-dimensional density functional approach to investigate heterogeneous nucleation behaviors of Lennard-Jones fluid on solid walls. In the theoretical calculation, fast Fourier transforms to compute the convolutions of Euler-Lagrange equation enables a high-efficient algorithm in three-dimensional space. The density distributions of a growing nucleus are presented to account for the nucleation process. Accordingly, the structures of nucleated droplet and surrounding supersaturated vapor on different walls are analyzed, and the corresponding free energy barriers and the critical radii are obtained to evaluate the difficulty of droplet formation. Since the theoretical approach is strictly constructed in three-dimensional space, and the liquid-solid, vapor-solid, and vapor-liquid interfacial tensions as well as the vapor-liquid-solid line tension are entirely integrated into the excess free energy expression, the present approach provides a flexible and efficient tool for studying heterogeneous nucleation.

Vapor-liquid interfacial properties of rigid-linear Lennard-Jones chains

We have obtained the interfacial properties of short rigid-linear chains formed from tangentially bonded Lennard-Jones monomeric units from direct simulation of the vapour-liquid interface. The full long-range tails of the potential are accounted for by means of an improved version of the inhomogeneous long-range corrections of Janeček [J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 6264-6269 (2006)] proposed recently by MacDowell and Blas [J. Chem. Phys. 131, 074705 (2009)] valid for spherical as well as for rigid and flexible molecular systems. Three different model systems comprising of 3, 4, and 5 monomers per molecule are considered. The simulations are performed in the canonical ensemble, and the vapor-liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using the test-area method. In addition to the surface tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, critical temperature and density, and interfacial thickness as functions of temperature, paying particular attention to the effect of the chain length and rigidity on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the chain length (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapor-liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases and the surface tension increases as the molecular chains get longer. The surface tension has been scaled by critical properties and represented as a function of the difference between coexistence densities relative to the critical density.

Substrate elastic deformation due to vertical component of liquid-vapor interfacial tension

Young’s equation is a fundamental equation in capillarity and wetting, which reflects the balance of the horizontal components of the three interfacial tensions with the contact angle (CA). However, it does not consider the vertical component of the liquid-vapor interfacial tension (VCLVIT). It is now well understood that the VCLVIT causes the elastic deformation of the solid substrate, which plays a significant role in the fabrication of the microfluidic devices because of the wide use of the soft materials. In this paper, the theoretical, experimental, and numerical aspects of the problem are reviewed. The effects of the VCLVIT-induced surface deformation on the wetting and spreading, the deflection of the microcantilever, and the elasto-capillarity and electroelasto-capillarity are discussed. Besides a brief review on the historical development and the recent advances, some suggestions on the future research are also provided.

Classical density functional theory for the prediction of the surface tension and interfacial properties of fluids mixtures of chain molecules based on the statistical associating fluid theory for potentials of variable range

The statistical associating fluid theory for attractive potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR) density functional theory (DFT) developed by [G. J. Gloor et al., J. Chem. Phys. 121, 12740 (2004)] is revisited and generalized to treat mixtures. The Helmholtz free-energy functional, which is based on the SAFT-VR approach for homogeneous fluids, is constructed by partitioning the free-energy density into a reference term (which incorporates all of the short-range interactions and is treated locally) and an attractive perturbation (which incorporates the long-range dispersion interactions). In this work, two different functionals are compared. In the first, one uses a mean-field version of the theory to treat the long-range dispersive interaction, incorporating an approximate treatment of the effect of the correlations on the attractive energy between the segments by introducing a short-range attractive contribution in the reference term. In the second, one approximates the correlation function of the molecular segments in the inhomogeneous system with that of a homogeneous system for an average density of the two positions, following the ideas proposed by Toxvaerd [S. Toxvaerd, J. Chem. Phys. 64, 2863 (1976)]. The SAFT-VR DFT formalism is then used to study interfacial properties and adsorption phenomena at the interface. A detailed analysis of the influence of the molecular parameters on the surface tension and density/composition profiles of the mixtures is undertaken for binary mixtures of molecules of different chain length, segment diameter, dispersive energy, and attractive range. The effect of the asymmetry of the molecular species on the adsorption phenomena is examined in some depth. The adequacy of the approach is demonstrated by comparing the theoretical predictions with the interfacial properties of some real mixtures. The relative merits of the two approximate free-energy functionals are assessed by examining the vapor-liquid interfacial tension of selected mixtures of n-alkanes. The theory generally provides an excellent description of the interfacial properties of the mixtures without the need for further adjustment of intermolecular parameters obtained from an examination of the bulk fluid-phase behavior alone.

Vapor-liquid interfacial properties of fully flexible Lennard-Jones chains

We consider the computation of the interfacial properties of molecular chains from direct simulation of the vapor-liquid interface. The molecules are modeled as fully flexible chains formed from tangentially bonded monomers with truncated Lennard-Jones interactions. Four different model systems comprising of 4, 8, 12, and 16 monomers per molecule are considered. The simulations are performed in the canonical ensemble, and the vapor-liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using the test area and the wandering interface methods. In addition to the surface tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, critical temperature and density, and interfacial thickness as functions of temperature, paying particular attention to the effect of the chain length on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the chain length (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapor-liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases and the surface tension increases as the molecular chains get longer. The interfacial thickness and surface tension appear to exhibit an asymptotic limiting behavior for long chains. A similar behavior is also observed for the coexistence densities and critical properties. Our simulation results indicate that the asymptotic regime is reached for Lennard-Jones chains formed from eight monomer segments. We also include a preliminary study on the effect of the cutoff distance on the interfacial properties. Our results indicate that all of the properties exhibit a dependence with the distance at which the interactions are truncated, though the relative effect varies from one property to the other. The interfacial thickness and, more particularly, the interfacial tension are found to be strongly dependent on the particular choice of cutoff, whereas the density profiles and coexistence densities are, in general, less sensitive to the truncation.

A Density Functional Theory for Lennard-Jones Fluids in Cylindrical Pores and Its Applications to Adsorption of Nitrogen on MCM-41 Materials

A density functional theory (DFT) constructed from the modified fundamental-measure theory and the modified Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation of state is presented. The Helmholtz free energy functional due to attractive interaction is expressed as a functional of attractive weighted-density in which the weight function is a mean-field-like type. An obvious advantage of the present theory is that it reproduces accurate bulk properties such as chemical potential, bulk pressure, vapor-liquid interfacial tension, and so forth when compared with molecular simulations and experiments with the same set of molecular parameters. Capabilities of the present DFT are demonstrated by its applicability to adsorption of argon and nitrogen on, respectively, a model cylindrical pore and mesoporous MCM-41 materials. Comparison of the theoretical results of argon in the model cylindrical pore with those from the newly published molecular simulations indicates that the present DFT predicts accurate average densities in the pore, slightly overestimates the pore pressure, and correctly describes the effect of the fluid-pore wall interaction on average densities and pressures in the pore. Application to adsorption of nitrogen on MCM-41 at 77.4 K shows that the present DFT predicts density profiles and adsorption isotherms in good agreement with those from molecular simulations and experiments. In contrast, the hysteresis loop of adsorption calculated from the mean-field theory shifts toward the low pressure region because a low bulk saturated pressure is produced from the mean-field equation of state. The present DFT offers a good way to describe the adsorption isotherms of porous materials as a function of temperature and pressure.

Interfacial Energetics of Protein Adsorption from Aqueous Buffer to Surfaces with Varying Hydrophilicity

Adsorption isotherms constructed from time-and-concentration-dependent advancing contact angles thetaa show that the profound biochemical diversity among ten different blood proteins with molecular weight spanning 10-1000 kDa has little discernible effect on the amount adsorbed from aqueous phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution after 1 h contact with a particular test surface selected from the full range of observable water wettability (as quantified by PBS adhesion tension tauoa=gammaolv cos thetaoa; where gammaolv is the liquid-vapor interfacial tension and thetaoa is the advancing PBS contact angle). The maximum advancing spreading pressure, Pimaxa, determined from adsorption isotherms decreases systematically with tauoa for methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayers (CH3 SAM, tauo=-15 mN/m), polystyrene spun-coated onto electronic-grade SiOx wafers (PS, tauo=7.2 mN/m), aminopropyltriethoxysilane-treated SiOx surfaces (APTES, tauo = 42 mN/m), and fully water wettable SiOx (tauo=72 mN/m). Likewise, the apparent Gibbs' surface excess [Gammasl-Gammasv], which measures the difference in the amount of protein adsorbed Gamma (mol/cm2) at solid-vapor (SV) and solid-liquid (SL) interfaces, decreases with tauo from maximal values measured on the CH3 SAM surface through zero (no protein adsorption in excess of bulk solution concentration) near tauo=30 mN/m (thetaa=65 degrees). These latter results corroborate the conclusion drawn from independent studies that water is too strongly bound to surfaces with tauo>or=30 mN/m to be displaced by adsorbing protein and that, as a consequence, protein does not accumulate within the interfacial region of such surfaces at concentrations exceeding that of bulk solution ([Gammasl-Gammasv]=0 at tauo=30 mN/m). Results are collectively interpreted to mean that water controls protein adsorption to surfaces and that the mechanism of protein adsorption can be understood from this perspective for a diverse set of proteins with very different amino acid compositions.

Toward a Quantitative Theory of Ultrasmall Liquid Droplets and Vapor—Liquid Nucleation

Thermodynamic properties of small systems can be drastically different from those corresponding to their macroscopic counterparts due to the surface and fluctuation effects. While the equations of state for macroscopic systems are well advanced, quantitative predictions of the structural and thermodynamic properties of small systems from a molecular perspective remain a daunting challenge. This article illustrates applications of a nonmean-field density functional theory to two types of ultrasmall liquid droplets: one is stabilized in a container of finite size and the other is unstable as appeared during vapor—liquid nucleation. For small systems of simple fluids represented by the Lennard-Jones model, theoretical predictions are compared with results from molecular simulations for the microscopic structure, the droplet size, and the free energy of formation over a broad range of conditions. The numerical agreement of theory with simulation data is comparable to that for the corresponding macroscopic systems. While the Tolman length, a correlation of curvature on surface tension, is negligible at least for small droplets of simple fluids, the vapor—liquid interfacial tension declines with the droplet size approximately proportional to the Gaussian curvature. Surprisingly, the Laplace equation for pressure change across a curved surface remains accurate even for a liquid droplet with the radius only a few times the molecular diameter.

Corresponding-States Analysis of the Surface Tension of Simple, Polar, and Ionic Fluids

The liquid–vapor interfacial tension of various simple, polar, and ionic fluids is studied in a corresponding-states analysis that was originally suggested by Guggenheim. Data for real fluids are compared to results of simulations and theoretical predictions for model fluids of each of the three types (namely, the Yukawa fluid, the square-well fluid, a fluid consisting of dipolar hard spheres, and the restricted primitive model of ionic fluids). As already demonstrated by Guggenheim, the data for simple and weakly polar fluids map onto a master curve. Strongly dipolar, associating fluids, which may also exhibit hydrogen-bonding (e.g., water), show deviations from this master curve at low temperatures. In addition, the surface tension of these fluids shows a characteristic sigmoid behavior as a function of temperature. A similar behavior is found from simulations of the ionic model fluid, but not from the electrolyte theories available up to now, for which we present new results here. Exceptionally low values of the reduced surface tension are obtained for hydrogen fluoride and for the Onsager model of dipolar fluids, which, however, agree remarkably well with each other in a corresponding-states plot.

Vapour–liquid interfacial tension of water and hydrocarbon mixture at high pressure and high temperature conditions

Interfacial tension values of two liquid–liquid–vapour systems, a ternary water–decane–methane and a quaternary water–cyclohexane–decane–methane, were measured using a pendant drop technique at 150 °C and high pressures up to 28.1 MPa. The tested ternary mixture showed a maximum liquid–liquid interfacial tension by increasing pressure whereas it only slightly increased liquid–liquid interfacial tension in the quaternary system. The predicted interfacial tension values by some models are compared and the application of liquid–liquid interfacial tension models for predicting the liquid–vapour interfacial tension at high pressure conditions is discussed.

Droplet impact and spreading: Droplet formulation effects

This work investigates a food application, where 2.8 mm droplets containing maltodextrin DE5 at 20 and 40 wt% in water, impact a smooth anhydrous milkfat surface at 1.7 to 4.1 m s - 1 velocities. Results show that greater maximum spread diameters are achieved with the higher impact velocities and lower viscosity droplets. Incorporating surfactants to lower the liquid–vapour interfacial tension (from 72 to 32 mN m - 1 ) did not affect the maximum spread diameter but significantly limited droplet recoil, giving final spreading extents that cover close to three times the surface area compared to droplets without the surfactant. From these results, simple formulation and operating guidelines are proposed to achieve a maximum final droplet spread diameter for air-suspension particle coating operations.