Solvent exchange is a simple solution-based process to produce surface nanodroplets over a large area. The final size of the droplets is determined by both the flow and solution conditions for a given substrate. In this work, we investigate the growth dynamics of surface nanodroplets during solvent exchange by using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF). The results show that during the solvent exchange, the formation of surface nanodroplets advanced on the surface in the direction of the flow. The time for the number density and surface coverage of the droplets to reach their respective plateau values is determined by the flow rate. From the observed evolution of the droplet volume and of the size of individual growing droplets, we are able to determine that the growth time of the droplets scales with the Peclet number Pe with a power law ∝Pe-1/2. This is consistent with Taylor-Aris dispersion, shedding light on the diffusive growth dynamics during the solvent exchange. Further, the spatial rearrangement of the droplets during coalescence demonstrates a preference in position shift based on size inequality, namely, the coalesced droplet resides closer to the larger of the two parent droplets. These findings provide a valuable insight toward controlling droplet size and spatial distribution.

The stability of high-end piezoacoustic drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printing is sometimes compromised by the entrainment of an air bubble inside the ink channel. Here, bubble pinch-off from an oscillating meniscus is studied in an optically transparent DOD printhead as a function of the driving waveform. We show that bubble pinch-off follows from low-amplitude high-frequency meniscus oscillations on top of the global high-amplitude low-frequency meniscus motion that drives droplet formation. In a certain window of control parameters, phase inversion between the low-and high-frequency components leads to the enclosure of an air cavity and bubble pinch-off. Although phenomenologically similar, bubble pinch-off is not a result of capillary-wave interaction such as observed in drop impact on a liquid pool. Instead, we reveal geometrical-flow focusing as the mechanism through which, at first, an outward jet is formed on the retracted concave meniscus. The subsequent high-frequency velocity oscillation acts on the now toroidal-shaped meniscus and it accelerates the toroidal ring outward, resulting in the formation of an air cavity that can pinch off. Through incompressible boundary-integral simulations, we reveal that bubble pinch-off requires an unbalance between the capillary and inertial time scales and that it does not require acoustics. The critical control parameters for pinch-off are the pulse timing and amplitude. To cure the bubble entrainment problem, the threshold for bubble pinch-off can be increased by suppressing the highfrequency driving through appropriate waveform design. The present work therefore aids the improvement of the stability of inkjet printers through a physical understanding of meniscus instabilities.

The dissolution of a single droplet, containing a mixture of oils, in water is experimentally studied. The oils in the droplet varied in terms of their solubility in water and their hydrophobicity. We demonstrate that the polarity of the droplet constituents strongly influences the dissolution dynamics. A binary-component droplet, containing two polar components (one soluble the other insoluble) exhibits a retarded dissolution as compared to a droplet containing only the soluble component. We argue that in this case the mixture in the droplet can be assumed homogeneous, leading to a smaller effective contact area of the soluble liquid in the droplet with the bulk water, and thus delayed dissolution. On the other hand, it is shown that this is not the case when a polar, soluble component is mixed with an insoluble non-polar component, in which case segregation between the different liquids inside the droplet occurs, leading to Marangoni flows and superspreading of the droplet. The segregation is confirmed by volumetric measurements and by the use of a solvatochromic dye in combination with confocal microscopy, which clearly showed that during dissolution local concentration differences inside the droplet developed.

This is a repository copy of Effect of surfactants on jet break-up in drop-on-demand inkjet printing.

Jetting is a universal phenomenon frequently observed in nature and industries, for instance, in rain drop impact, inkjet printing, spray cooling, fuel atomization, etc. In drop impact on a superheated surface, we observe the formation of a vapor cavity beneath the dynamic Leidenfrost drop and a consecutive downward ejection of a jet into the cavity using ultrafast x-ray phase contrast imaging. We reveal that the cavity is induced mostly by the retraction of the drop and the jetting is caused by the convergence of capillary waves along the liquid-cavity interface. We find a jetting criterion based on the viscous damping of capillary waves: [OhWe 2 ] 66 ± 10. These results can provide important insight that leads to understanding and modeling of jets in nature.

{When a liquid drop impacts on a heated substrate, it can remain deposited, or violently boil in contact, or lift off with or without ever touching the surface. The latter...

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Surface droplets in the microscale are of great interest for their relevance in broad droplet-based technologies. Derived from the Ouzo effect, the solvent exchange process is a simple bottom-up approach to produce surface nano-/micro-droplets by the nucleation and growth mechanism. The oil oversaturation pulse is created as a good solvent (ethanol) for the oil displaced by a poor solvent (water) in the flow cell. In this work, we investigated the formation of surface droplets on a one-dimensional substrate (a single hydrophobic fiber with a diameter of 10 μm) in a flow. The droplet growth on the microfiber is enhanced as the fiber is perpendicular to the external flow direction, due to the coupled effects between the droplet formation and the local flow. On the other hand, the droplet growth exhibits different growth dynamics when the fiber is placed parallel to the external flow direction. The general trend that surface droplets grow faster on a fiber at higher flow rates is consistent with the situation on planar substrates. The coupled interactions between the growing droplets and the local flow conditions during the solvent exchange process were further revealed in the simulations. The findings from this work will be valuable for the design and utilization of the solvent exchange process to produce surface nanodroplets on a microfiber under flow conditions and thus broaden the droplet-based application fields.