Study adds to understanding of droplet behaviour
New research by a scientist in the US can better explain how a droplet splash is dictated by the smoothness of a surface, as well as the surrounding air pressure.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
Scientists already knew that two aspects were involved in this seemingly simple process; one related to the surrounding air, and the other to how the liquid spreads on the substrate. ‘If we were forced to guess, we’d probably assume that decreasing the ambient pressure around the drop would make the splash bigger. After all, we’re decreasing air resistance,’ explains Andrzej Latka, at the University of Chicago, who performed the new research.
Read the full story and watch the video showing the splash in Chemistry World.
This article is free to access until 28 February 2017.
Andrzej Latka, Soft Matter, 2017. DOI: 10.1039/C6SM02321E
