The maximum spreading of drops impacting on smooth and rough surfaces is measured from low to high impact velocity for liquids with different surface tensions and viscosities. We demonstrate that dynamic wetting plays an important role in the spreading at low velocity, characterized by the dynamic contact angle at maximum spreading. In the energy balance, we account for the dynamic wettability by introducing the capillary energy at zero impact velocity, which relates to the spreading ratio at zero impact velocity. Correcting the measured spreading ratio by the spreading ratio at zero velocity, we find a correct scaling behaviour for low and high impact velocity and, by interpolation between the two, we find a universal scaling curve. The influence of the liquid as well as the nature and roughness of the surface are taken into account properly by rescaling with the spreading ratio at zero velocity, which, as demonstrated, is equivalent to accounting for the dynamic contact angle.

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The study of the behavior of sessile droplets on solid substrates is not only associated with common everyday phenomena, such as the coffee stain effect, limescale deposits on our bathroom walls , but also very important in many applications such as purification of pharmaceuticals, de-icing of airplanes, inkjet printing and coating applications. In many of these processes, a phase change happens within the drop because of solvent evaporation, temperature changes or chemical reactions, which consequently lead to liquid to solid transitions in the droplets. Here we show that crystallization patterns of evaporating of water drops containing dissolved salts are different from the stains reported for evaporating colloidal suspensions. This happens because during the solvent evaporation, the salts crystallize and grow during the drying. Our results show that the patterns of the resulting salt crystal stains are mainly governed by wetting properties of the emerging crystal as well as the pathway of nucleation and growth, and are independent of the evaporation rate and thermal conductivity of the substrates.

ABSTRACT-We study the spontaneous nucleation and growth of sodium chloride crystals induced by controlled evaporation in confined geometries (microcapillaries) spanning several orders of magnitude in volume. In all experiments, the nucleation happens reproducibly at a very high supersaturation S~1.6 and is independent of the size, shape and surface properties of the microcapillary. We show from classical nucleation theory that this is expected: S~1.6 corresponds to the point where nucleation first becomes observable on experimental time scales.A consequence of the high supersaturations reached at the onset of nucleation is the very rapid growth of a single skeletal (Hopper) crystal. Experiments on porous media reveal also the

Salt crystallization is a major cause of weathering of rocks, artworks and monuments. Damage can only occur if crystals continue to grow in confinement, i.e. within the pore space of these materials, thus generating mechanical stress. We report the direct measurement, at the microscale, of the force exerted by growing alkali halide salt crystals while visualizing their spontaneous nucleation and growth. The experiments reveal the crucial role of the wetting films between the growing crystal and the confining walls for the development of the pressure. Our results suggest that the measured force originates from repulsion between the similarly charged confining wall and the salt crystal separated by a ~1.5 nm liquid film. Indeed, if the walls are made hydrophobic, no film is observed and no repulsive forces are detected. We also show that the magnitude of the induced pressure is system specific explaining why different salts lead to different amounts of damage to porous materials.