Evaluation of the evaporation route of a liquid droplet on Au coated and non-coated glass surfaces

Abstract

The contact angle was used to estimate the rate of evaporation of liquid droplets on bare glass or gold (Au) sputtered glass surfaces. The rate of evaporation of water (a pure liquid) was higher than non-pure liquid composed of a 3 wt% solution of silica nanoparticles (SNP) on these two solid supports. Despite using the same initial drop volume (1 µL) throughout the experiment, the base diameter of the liquid droplet after evaporation on the different surfaces interestingly showed variations. While the liquid-solid interface displayed slip-length and contact angle variations throughout the evaporation time, the slip-length variations were more pronounced with colloidal SNP on Au-sputtered glass surfaces than pure liquid on bare glass surface. Potential application of this study was also investigated in the surface control of uniform silica microwires from colloidal SNP on Au-sputtered glass surface under low temperature conditions.