We report the results of physical experiments that demonstrate the strong influence of the thermal conductivity of the substrate on the evaporation of a pinned droplet. We show that this behaviour can be captured by a mathematical model including the variation of the saturation concentration with temperature, and hence coupling the problems for the vapour concentration in the atmosphere and the temperature in the liquid and the substrate. Furthermore, we show that including two ad hoc improvements to the model, namely a Newton's law of cooling on the unwetted surface of the substrate and the buoyancy of water vapour in the atmosphere, give excellent quantitative agreement for all of the combinations of liquid and substrate considered

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A mathematical model for the quasi-steady diffusion-limited evaporation of a thin axisymmetric sessile droplet of liquid with a pinned contact line is formulated and solved. The model generalises the theoretical model proposed by Deegan et al. [Phys. Rev. E, 62 (2000) 756-765] to include the effect of evaporative cooling on the saturation concentration of vapour at the free surface of the droplet, and the dependence of the coefficient of diffusion of vapour in the atmosphere on the atmospheric pressure. The predictions of the model are in good qualitative, and in some cases also quantitative, agreement with recent experimental results. In particular, they capture the experimentally observed dependence of the total evaporation rate on the thermal conductivities of the liquid and the substrate, and on the atmospheric pressure.

Experimental results on the wetting behavior of water, methanol, and binary mixture sessile drops on a smooth, polymer-coated substrate are reported. The wetting behavior of evaporating water/methanol drops was also studied in a water-saturated environment. Drop parameters (contact angle, shape, and volume) were monitored in time. The effects of the initial relative concentrations on subsequent evaporation and wetting dynamics were investigated. Physical mechanisms responsible for the various types of wetting behavior during different stages are proposed and discussed. Competition between evaporation and hydrodynamic flow are evoked. Using an environment saturated with water vapor allowed further exploration of the controlling mechanisms and underlying processes. Wetting stages attributed to differential evaporation of methanol were identified. Methanol, the more volatile component, evaporates predominantly in the initial stage. The data, however, suggest that a small proportion of methanol remained in the drop after the first stage of evaporation. This residual methanol within the drop seems to influence subsequent wetting behavior strongly.