Leidenfrost droplet jet engine by bubble ejection.

HYPOTHESIS: Despite the flourishing studies of Leidenfrost droplet motion in its boiling regime, the droplet motion across different boiling regimes has rarely been focused on, where bubbles are generated at the solid-liquid interface. These bubbles are probable to dramatically alter the dynamics of Leidenfrost droplets, creating some intriguing phenomena of droplet motion. EXPERIMENTS: Hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and superhydrophobic substrates with a temperature gradient are designed, and Leidenfrost droplets with diverse fluid types, volumes, and velocities travel from the hot end to the cold end of the substrate. The behaviors of droplet motion across different boiling regimes are recorded and depicted in a phase diagram. FINDINGS: A special phenomenon of Leidenfrost droplets that resembles a jet engine is witnessed on a hydrophilic substrate with a temperature gradient: the droplet traveling across boiling regimes repulsing itself backward. The mechanism of repulsive motion is the reverse thrust from fierce bubble ejection when droplets meet nucleate boiling regime, which cannot take place on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic substrates. We further demonstrate that conflicting droplet motions can occur in similar conditions, and a model is developed to predict the occurring criteria of this phenomenon for droplets in diverse working conditions, which agrees well with the experimental data.

Rectification of Mobile Leidenfrost Droplets by Planar Ratchets.

The self-transportation of mobile Leidenfrost droplets with well-defined direction and velocity on millimetric ratchets is one of the most representative and spectacular phenomena in droplet dynamics. Despite extensive progress in the ability to control the spatiotemporal propagation of droplets, it remains elusive how the individual ratchet units, as well as the interactions within their arrays, are translated into the collective droplet dynamics. Here, simple planar ratchets characterized by uniform height normal to the surface are designed. It is revealed that on planar ratchets, the transport dynamics of Leidenfrost droplets is dependent not only on individual units, but also on the elegant coordination within their arrays dictated by their topography. The design of planar ratchets enriches the fundamental understanding of how the surface topography is translated into dynamic and collective droplet transport behaviors, and also imparts higher applicability in microelectromechanical system based fluidic devices.

Effect of Different Fluids on Rectified Motion of Leidenfrost Droplets on Micro/Sub-Micron Ratchets.

Leidenfrost droplets, liquid droplets placed on a hot flat surface above the Leidenfrost temperature of the liquid, are an interesting model system to understand and achieve frictionless motion of droplets on a surface. Controlled unidirectional motion of otherwise random Leidenfrost droplets can be achieved by replacing the flat surface by a surface with topological ratchets. In this study, we show how an increase in the vapor layer thickness below the Leidenfrost droplet influences the droplet motion for underlying ratchets with various periods ranging from 1.5mm down to 800nm. This was exploited by systematically studying the Leidenfrost droplet motion of various liquids with low boiling points including acetone, isopropanol, and R134a on the aforementioned various ratchets. For all liquids with boiling points lower than water, no unidirectional motion was observed for 800 nm. This indicates that the asymmetric vapor flow beneath the Leidenfrost droplet becomes negligible due to the large vapor layer thickness relative to the ratchet depth. However, unidirectional droplet motion was still observed for the micron and millimeter scale ratchets even when the ratchet surface temperature was increased up to 360°C and 230°C for acetone and isopropanol, respectively. This can be attributed to the insulating property of the thick vapor layer which prevent the droplet from producing more vapor with increasing temperature. We also report the effect of the ratchet period on the droplet motion at room temperature using R134a droplets.

Acoustically-controlled Leidenfrost droplets.

Suppressing the Leidenfrost effect can significantly improve heat transfer from a heated substrate to a droplet above it. In this work, we demonstrate that by generating high frequency acoustic wave in the droplet, at sufficient vibration displacement amplitudes, the Leidenfrost effect can be suppressed due to the acoustic radiation pressure exerted on the liquid-vapor interface; strong capillary waves are observed at the liquid-vapor interface and subsequently leads to contact between the liquid and the heated substrate. Using this technique, with 10(5)Hz vibration frequency and 10(-6)m displacement amplitude of the acoustic transducer, a maximum of 45% reduction of the initial temperature (T0∼200-300°C) of the heated substrate can be achieved with a single droplet of volume 10(-5)l.