Work

Spontaneous Coulomb fissions of drops on lubricated surfaces

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Charged water drops are more widespread than commonly acknowledged. For example, raindrops typically carry charges of order [Formula: see text] pC, while routine pipetting in the laboratory produces drops with [Formula: see text] pC. Here, we show that such modest charging can spontaneously generate periodic Coulomb fissions for evaporating water drops on lubricated surfaces, with more than 60 successive cycles observed over 30 min. Interestingly, the underlying instability can be quantitatively predicted by two fissility thresholds: one marking the onset of drop elongation and another triggering fission. Each fission culminates with a fine liquid jet that disintegrates into 40 to 50 microdroplets, expelled within microseconds. The phenomenon spans an extraordinary range of length scales (from millimeters to microns) and time scales (hours to microseconds), with broad potential applications ranging from nanoscale fabrication to electrospray ionization.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2538161123

Authors: Marcus Lin, Peng Zhang, Aaron D. Ratschow, Oscar Li, Sankara Arunachalam, Dan Daniel

Institutions: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Language: English

Topic: Electrohydrodynamics and Fluid Dynamics

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University

Awards: G3186593460, G48834270