TY - JOUR
T1 - Solutal Marangoni flows of miscible liquids drive transport without surface contamination
AU - Kim, Hyoungsoo
AU - Muller, Koen
AU - Shardt, Orest
AU - Afkhami, Shahriar
AU - Stone, Howard A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - Mixing and spreading of different liquids are omnipresent in nature, life and technology, such as oil pollution on the sea, estuaries, food processing, cosmetic and beverage industries, lab-on-a-chip devices, and polymer processing. However, the mixing and spreading mechanisms for miscible liquids remain poorly characterized. Here, we show that a fully soluble liquid drop deposited on a liquid surface remains as a static lens without immediately spreading and mixing, and simultaneously a Marangoni-driven convective flow is generated, which are counterintuitive results when two liquids have different surface tensions. To understand the dynamics, we develop a theoretical model to predict the finite spreading time and length scales, the Marangoni-driven convection flow speed, and the finite timescale to establish the quasi-steady state for the Marangoni flow. The fundamental understanding of this solutal Marangoni flow may enable driving bulk flows and constructing an effective drug delivery and surface cleaning approach without causing surface contamination by immiscible chemical species.
AB - Mixing and spreading of different liquids are omnipresent in nature, life and technology, such as oil pollution on the sea, estuaries, food processing, cosmetic and beverage industries, lab-on-a-chip devices, and polymer processing. However, the mixing and spreading mechanisms for miscible liquids remain poorly characterized. Here, we show that a fully soluble liquid drop deposited on a liquid surface remains as a static lens without immediately spreading and mixing, and simultaneously a Marangoni-driven convective flow is generated, which are counterintuitive results when two liquids have different surface tensions. To understand the dynamics, we develop a theoretical model to predict the finite spreading time and length scales, the Marangoni-driven convection flow speed, and the finite timescale to establish the quasi-steady state for the Marangoni flow. The fundamental understanding of this solutal Marangoni flow may enable driving bulk flows and constructing an effective drug delivery and surface cleaning approach without causing surface contamination by immiscible chemical species.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032685461&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nphys4214
DO - 10.1038/nphys4214
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032685461
SN - 1745-2473
VL - 13
SP - 1105
EP - 1110
JO - Nature Physics
JF - Nature Physics
IS - 11
ER -