Abstract
Controlling the impact of drops onto solid surfaces is important for a wide variey of coating and deposition processes—for example, the treatment of plants with herbicides and pesticides requires precise targeting in order to meet stringent toxicological regulations. However, the outer wax-like layer of the leaves is a non-wetting substrate that causes sprayed droplets to rebound; often less than 50% of the initial spray is retained by the plant1. Although the impact and subsequent retraction of non-wetting aqueous drops on a hydrophobic surface have been the subjects of extensive experimental and theoretical work2,3,4,5,6,7, non-newtonian rheological effects have not been considered in any detail. Here we report that, by adding very small amounts of a flexible polymer to the aqueous phase, we can inhibit droplet rebound on a hydrophobic surface and markedly improve deposition without significantly altering the shear viscosity of the solutions. Our results can be understood by taking into account the non-newtonian elongational viscosity, which provides a large resistance to drop retraction after impact, thereby suppressing droplet rebound.
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Acknowledgements
D.B. thanks S. Kumar for helpful discussions; and J. Vermant and P. Moldenaers for help with the elongational viscosity measurements. LPS de l’ENS is UMR 8550 of the CNRS, associated with the universities Paris 6 and 7. We also thank the European Commission for their support in the form of TMR project funding.
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Bergeron, V., Bonn, D., Martin, J. et al. Controlling droplet deposition with polymer additives. Nature 405, 772–775 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35015525
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35015525
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