Coalescence of surfactant-laden droplets

Droplet coalescence is an important process in nature and various technologies (e.g., inkjet printing). Here, we unveil the surfactant mass transport mechanism and report on several major differences in the coalescence of surfactant-laden droplets as compared to pure water droplets by means of molec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysics of fluids (1994) Vol. 35; no. 6
Main Authors Arbabi, Soheil, Deuar, Piotr, Denys, Mateusz, Bennacer, Rachid, Che, Zhizhao, Theodorakis, Panagiotis E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Melville American Institute of Physics 01.06.2023
Subjects
Deceleration
Droplets
Engineering Sciences
Fluid dynamics
Inkjet printing
Mass transport
Molecular dynamics
Physics
Surfactants
Water drops
Water flow
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Summary:Droplet coalescence is an important process in nature and various technologies (e.g., inkjet printing). Here, we unveil the surfactant mass transport mechanism and report on several major differences in the coalescence of surfactant-laden droplets as compared to pure water droplets by means of molecular dynamics simulation of a coarse-grained model. Large-scale changes to bridge growth dynamics are identified, such as the lack of multiple thermally excited precursors, attenuated collective excitations after contact, slowing down in the inertial regime due to aggregate-induced rigidity and reduced water flow, and a slowing down in the coalescence rate (deceleration) when surfactant concentration increases, while at the same time, we also confirm the existence of an initial thermal, and a power-law, inertial, regime of the bridge growth dynamics in both the pure and the surfactant-laden droplets. Thus, we unveil the key mechanisms in one of the fundamental topological processes of liquid droplets containing surfactant, which is crucial in relevant technologies.
ISSN:1070-6631
1089-7666
DOI:10.1063/5.0153676