Interfacial flows in sessile evaporating droplets of mineral water

TL;DR

This study investigates how ionic contamination in mineral water affects interfacial flows in evaporating droplets, revealing complex behaviors that challenge existing models and assumptions about contamination effects.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence that ionic contamination influences flow patterns in evaporating droplets, highlighting the need for refined models.

Findings

Interfacial flow magnitude is similar in ultrapure and low-mineral waters.

Higher mineral content slows down the interfacial flow due to ionic gradients.

Current models overestimate velocities by 2-3 orders of magnitude.

Abstract

Liquid flow in sessile evaporating droplets of ultrapure water typically results from two main contributions: a capillary flow pushing the liquid towards the contact line from the bulk and a thermal Marangoni flow pulling the drop free surface towards the summit. Current analytical and numerical models are in good qualitative agreement with experimental observations however they overestimate the interfacial velocity values by 2-3 orders of magnitude. This discrepancy is generally ascribed to contamination of the water samples with non-soluble surfactants, however an experimental confirmation of this assumption has not yet been provided. In this work, we show that a small "ionic contamination" can cause a significant effect in the flow pattern inside the droplet. To provide the proof, we compare the flow in evaporating droplets of ultrapure water with commercially available bottled water of different mineralization levels. Mineral waters are bottled at natural springs, are micro-biologically pure, and contain only traces of minerals (as well as traces of other possible contaminants), therefore one would expect a slower interfacial flow as the amount of "contaminants" increase. Surprisingly, our results show that the magnitude of the interfacial flow is practically the same for mineral waters with low content of minerals as that of ultrapure water. However, for waters with larger content of minerals, the interfacial flow tends to slow down due to the presence of ionic concentration gradients. Our results show a much more complex scenario than it has been typically suspected, and therefore a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of the huge differences between numerical models and experiments is necessary.