Evaporation of droplets on strong and low-pinning surfaces and dynamics of the triple line

Abstract

Evaporation of water droplets deposited on metal and polymer substrates was studied. The evaporated droplet demonstrates different behaviors on low-pinning (polymer) and strong-pinning (metallic) surfaces. When deposited on polymer surfaces, the evaporated droplet is featured by stick-slip sliding, whereas on strong-pinning metallic surfaces it does not show such kind of motion and demonstrates the giant contact-angle hysteresis. Stick-slip motion of droplets is described satisfactorily by the Shanahan-Sefiane model relating this kind of motion to surmounting potential barriers caused by the pinning of the triple (three-phase) line. The experimentally established "stick" times coincide with the values predicted by the Shanahan-Sefiane theory. The values of potential barriers are reported. The notion of the equilibrium contact angle is refined.