Nanoscopic interactions of colloidal particles can suppress millimetre drop splashing

Marie-Jean Thoraval*, Jonas Schubert, Stefan Karpitschka, Munish Chanana, François Boyer, Enrique Sandoval-Naval, J. Frits Dijksman, Jacco H. Snoeijer, Detlef Lohse

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)
81 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The splashing of liquid drops onto a solid surface is important for a wide range of applications, including combustion and spray coating. As the drop hits the solid surface, the liquid is ejected into a thin horizontal sheet expanding radially over the substrate. Above a critical impact velocity, the liquid sheet is forced to separate from the solid surface by the ambient air, and breaks up into smaller droplets. Despite many applications involving complex fluids, their effects on splashing remain mostly unexplored. Here we show that the splashing of a nanoparticle dispersion can be suppressed at higher impact velocities by the interactions of the nanoparticles with the solid surface. Although the dispersion drop first shows the classical transition from deposition to splashing when increasing the impact velocity, no splashing is observed above a second higher critical impact velocity. This result goes against the commonly accepted understanding of splashing, that a higher impact velocity should lead to even more pronounced splashing. Our findings open new possibilities to deposit large amount of complex liquids at high speeds. This journal is

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5116-5121
Number of pages6
JournalSoft matter
Volume17
Issue number20
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 May 2021

Keywords

  • UT-Hybrid-D

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Nanoscopic interactions of colloidal particles can suppress millimetre drop splashing'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this