Moulding hydrodynamic 2D-crystals upon parametric Faraday waves in shear-functionalized water surfaces

TL;DR

This study reveals that surface rigidity in water with surfactants enables the formation of ordered hydrodynamic crystal patterns via Faraday waves, with tunable symmetry and size, offering new soft matter manipulation strategies.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of ordered hydrodynamic crystals on shear-functionalized water surfaces, controlled by Faraday wave parameters, a novel insight into surface pattern formation.

Findings

Ordered 2D-hydrodynamic crystals form on surfactant-functionalized water surfaces.

Surface rigidity influences the phase coherence and pattern order of Faraday waves.

Crystal symmetry and size are tunable via the dispersion regime of the waves.

Abstract

Faraday waves (FWs), or surface waves oscillating at half of the natural frequency when a liquid is vertically vibrated, are archetypes of ordering transitions on liquid surfaces. The existence of unbounded FW-patterns sustained upon bulk frictional stresses has been evidenced in highly viscous fluids. However, the role of surface rigidity has not been investigated so far. Here, we demonstrate that dynamically frozen FWs that we call 2D-hydrodynamic crystals do appear as ordered patterns of nonlinear surface modes in water surfaces functionalized with soluble (bio)surfactants endowing in-plane shear stiffness. The strong phase coherence in conjunction with the increased surface rigidity bear the FW-ordering transition, upon which the hydrodynamic crystals were reversibly molded by parametric control of their degree of order. Crystal symmetry and unit cell size were tuned depending on the FW-dispersion regime. The hydrodynamic crystals here discovered could be exploited in touchless strategies of soft matter scaffolding. Particularly, the surface-directed synthesis of structured materials based on colloids or polymers and cell culture patterns for tissue engineering could be ameliorated under external control of FW-coherence