Insights into Transient Dynamics of Bacteria Laden Liquid Bridges

TL;DR

This study investigates the evaporation, precipitate formation, and bacterial distribution in liquid bridges containing Salmonella and Pseudomonas, revealing how confinement influences pattern formation and bacterial behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and theoretical analysis of bacteria-laden liquid bridges, highlighting the impact of confinement on evaporation dynamics and precipitate patterns.

Findings

Catenoid model accurately captures volume regression at all confinement distances.

Precipitate patterns resemble coffee ring deposits, with variations depending on confinement.

Motile bacteria size increases with decreasing confinement, non-motile size remains constant.

Abstract

We study evaporation and precipitate formation mechanics of bacteria-laden liquid bridge using experimental and theoretical analysis. Aqueous suspension of motile and non-motile Salmonella Typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa typically found in contaminated food and water were used in liquid bridge configuration between hydrophilic substrates. Using inverse logarithmic evaporation flux model, we study volume regression for cylindrical/catenoid volume models with confinement distance as a parameter. For all confinement distances, the regression is linear on normalizing both volume and time as in the case of pure sessile drop. However, in normalized volume and dimensional time space, we observe non-linearities as the evaporation time scales non linearly with the confinement distance. The non-linearities were captured using the catenoid model. The catenoid model conforms to the experimental volume regression data at all confinement distances, and the transient liquid bridge interface evolution profile at high confinement distance. We also study the precipitate pattern and bacterial distribution using micro/nano characterization techniques. We show the average precipitate pattern for both sessile and higher confinement distance resembles coffee ring type deposits although the underlying bacterial distribution differs. For lower confinement, we observe pattern resulting from a combination of coffee ring effect, stick-slick motion, and thin film instability. The reduction in confinement distance causes an altered bacterial agglomeration, resulting in a multi-pattern network instead of a single circumferential edge deposition. We show the aerial size of motile bacteria increases with decreasing confinement, whereas the size for non-motile bacteria remains constant in the precipitate.