TY - JOUR
T1 - Stability of respiratory-like droplets under evaporation
AU - Seyfert, Carola
AU - Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Javier
AU - Lohse, Detlef
AU - Marin, Alvaro
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank E. J. W. Berenschot and N. Tas for supplying the superhydrophobic substrates used in this paper. A.M. and C.S. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council, Project No. 678573. J.R.R. acknowledges funding from the Spanish MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 through Grant No. PID2020-114945RB-C21. D.L. acknowledges discussions with Mariette Knaap and funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), Project No. 10430012010022, and from the European Research Council, Project No. 740479.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Physical Society.
PY - 2022/2/28
Y1 - 2022/2/28
N2 - Recent studies have shown that enveloped viruses contained in airborne respiratory droplets lose infectability fastest at intermediate ambient relative humidities Hr. However, the precise physicochemical mechanisms that generate such least-favorable conditions for the virus are not fully understood yet. Studying the evaporation dynamics of respiratory-like droplets in air experimentally and analytically, we reveal that at high Hr, the salt dissolved in respiratory drops inhibits their evaporation indefinitely. Conversely, at low Hr the drop evaporates leaving a porous solid residue, inside which virions may remain dormant for long times. We conclude that the optimal relative humidity for minimal infectability should coincide with droplets containing the maximum concentration of salt for longest periods of time.
AB - Recent studies have shown that enveloped viruses contained in airborne respiratory droplets lose infectability fastest at intermediate ambient relative humidities Hr. However, the precise physicochemical mechanisms that generate such least-favorable conditions for the virus are not fully understood yet. Studying the evaporation dynamics of respiratory-like droplets in air experimentally and analytically, we reveal that at high Hr, the salt dissolved in respiratory drops inhibits their evaporation indefinitely. Conversely, at low Hr the drop evaporates leaving a porous solid residue, inside which virions may remain dormant for long times. We conclude that the optimal relative humidity for minimal infectability should coincide with droplets containing the maximum concentration of salt for longest periods of time.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126009909&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.7.023603
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.7.023603
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126009909
SN - 2469-990X
VL - 7
JO - Physical review fluids
JF - Physical review fluids
IS - 2
M1 - 023603
ER -