Dynamics of wetting explored with inkjet printing

TL;DR

This paper uses inkjet printing to study wetting dynamics on flat surfaces and granular layers, revealing how evaporation scales with contact line size and demonstrating repeatable deposition-evaporation cycles.

Contribution

It introduces a high-precision inkjet printing method to analyze wetting behavior and extends the study to granular monolayers, highlighting new insights into evaporation and particle interactions.

Findings

Evaporation rate scales with contact line dimension.

System exhibits a closed cycle of deposition and evaporation.

High repeatability enables detailed wetting dynamics analysis.

Abstract

An inkjet printer head, which is capable of depositing liquid droplets with a resolution of $22$ picoliters and high repeatability, is employed to investigate the wetting dynamics of drops printed on a horizontal plane as well as on a granular monolayer. For a sessile drop on a horizontal plane, we characterize the contact angle hysteresis, drop volume and contact line dynamics from side view images. We show that the evaporation rate scales with the dimension of the contact line instead of the surface area of the drop. We demonstrate that the system evolves into a closed cycle upon repeating the depositing-evaporating process, owing to the high repeatability of the printing facility. Finally, we extend the investigation to a granular monolayer in order to explore the interplay between liquid deposition and granular particles.