Droplet Evaporation Dynamics of Low Surface Tension Fluids Using the Steady Method.

Droplet evaporation governs many heat- and mass-transfer processes germane in nature and industry. In the past 3 centuries, transient techniques have been developed to characterize the evaporation of sessile droplets. These methods have difficulty in reconciling transient effects induced by the droplet shape and size changes during evaporation. Furthermore, investigation of evaporation of microdroplets residing on wetting substrates, or fluids having low surface tensions (<30 mN/m), is difficult to perform using established approaches. Here, we use the steady method to study the microdroplet evaporation dynamics of low surface tension liquids. We start by employing the steady method to benchmark with water droplets having base radii (20 ≤ Rb ≤ 260 µm), apparent advancing contact angle (45° ≤ θa,app ≤ 162°), surface temperature (30 < Ts < 60 °C), and relative humidity (40% < ϕ < 60%). Following validation, evaporation of ethanol (≈22 mN/m), hexane (≈18 mN/m), and dodecane (≈25 mN/m) were studied for 90 ≤ Rb ≤ 400 µm and 10 < Ts < 25 °C. We elucidate the mechanisms governing the observed behavior using heat and mass transport scaling analysis during evaporation, demonstrating our steady technique to be particularly advantageous for microdroplets, where Marangoni and buoyant forces are negligible. Our work not only elucidates the droplet evaporation mechanisms of low surface tension liquids but also demonstrates the steady method as a means to study phase change processes.

Steady Method for the Analysis of Evaporation Dynamics.

Droplet evaporation is an important phenomenon governing many man-made and natural processes. Characterizing the rate of evaporation with high accuracy has attracted the attention of numerous scientists over the past century. Traditionally, researchers have studied evaporation by observing the change in the droplet size in a given time interval. However, the transient nature coupled with the significant mass-transfer-governed gas dynamics occurring at the droplet three-phase contact line makes the classical method crude. Furthermore, the intricate balance played by the internal and external flows, evaporation kinetics, thermocapillarity, binary-mixture dynamics, curvature, and moving contact lines makes the decoupling of these processes impossible with classical transient methods. Here, we present a method to measure the rate of evaporation of spatially and temporally steady droplets. By utilizing a piezoelectric dispenser to feed microscale droplets (R ≈ 9 µm) to a larger evaporating droplet at a prescribed frequency, we can both create variable-sized droplets on any surface and study their evaporation rate by modulating the piezoelectric droplet addition frequency. Using our steady technique, we studied water evaporation of droplets having base radii ranging from 20 to 250 µm on surfaces of different functionalities (45° ≤ θa,app ≤ 162°, where θa,app is the apparent advancing contact angle). We benchmarked our technique with the classical unsteady method, showing an improvement of 140% in evaporation rate measurement accuracy. Our work not only characterizes the evaporation dynamics on functional surfaces but also provides an experimental platform to finally enable the decoupling of the complex physics governing the ubiquitous droplet evaporation process.

Optically Transparent Thermally Insulating Silica Aerogels for Solar Thermal Insulation.

Rooftop solar thermal collectors have the potential to meet residential heating demands if deployed efficiently at low solar irradiance (i.e., 1 sun). The efficiency of solar thermal collectors depends on their ability to absorb incoming solar energy and minimize thermal losses. Most techniques utilize a vacuum gap between the solar absorber and the surroundings to eliminate conduction and convection losses, in combination with surface coatings to minimize reradiation losses. Here, we present an alternative approach that operates at atmospheric pressure with simple, black, absorbing surfaces. Silica based aerogels coated on black surfaces have the potential to act as simple and inexpensive solar thermal collectors because of their high transmission to solar radiation and low transmission to thermal radiation. To demonstrate their heat-trapping properties, we fabricated tetramethyl orthosilicate-based silica aerogels. A hydrophilic aerogel with a thickness of 1 cm exhibited a solar-averaged transmission of 76% and thermally averaged transmission of ≈1% (at 100 °C). To minimize unwanted solar absorption by O-H groups, we functionalized the aerogel to be hydrophobic, resulting in a solar-averaged transmission of 88%. To provide a deeper understanding of the link between aerogel properties and overall efficiency, we developed a coupled radiative-conductive heat transfer model and used it to predict solar thermal performance. Instantaneous solar thermal efficiencies approaching 55% at 1 sun and 80 °C were predicted. This study sheds light on the applicability of silica aerogels on black coatings for solar thermal collectors and offers design priorities for next-generation solar thermal aerogels.