Evaporation dynamics of pure and binary mixture drops on dry and lubricant coated slippery surfaces

Lubricating fluid coated slippery (LCS) surfaces offer a new scope to study the evaporation of sessile drops due to pinning free motion of the three-phase contact line (TPCL). This work aims to experimentally demonstrate the different evaporation behavior of water and binary mixture drops on dry and LCS surfaces.

Evaporation study on dry and LCS surfaces is performed by capturing top and side views of evaporating drops to extract various parameters which are subsequently used to distinguish between different evaporation modes.

Formation of a wetting ridge and cloaking of water drops on LCS surfaces affect the overall evaporation process and make it different compared to that on dry surfaces. Evaporation dynamics on LCS surfaces reveal that wetting ridge height of an evaporating drop varies non-monotonically compared to the drop height. Diffusion based theoretical model is used to predict the role of various system parameters on the evaporation process. In contrast to dry solid surfaces, where coffee ring effects are commonly observed towards the end of the evaporation process, LCS surfaces show the formation of a wrinkle like pattern of the lubricating fluid which disappears at long times.