Enhancing droplet deposition through in-situ precipitation
Name
Enhancing droplet.pdf
Size
2.96 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Damak, Maher
Mahmoudi, Seyed Reza
Hyder, MD Nasim
Varanasi, Kripa
Date Issued
August 2016
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Damak, Maher et al. “Enhancing Droplet Deposition through in-Situ Precipitation.” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 12560. © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Retention of agricultural sprays on plant surfaces is an important challenge. Bouncing of sprayed pesticide droplets from leaves is a major source of soil and groundwater pollution and pesticide overuse. Here we report a method to increase droplet deposition through in-situ formation of hydrophilic surface defects that can arrest droplets during impact. Defects are created by simultaneously spraying oppositely charged polyelectrolytes that induce surface precipitation when two droplets come into contact. Using high-speed imaging, we study the coupled dynamics of drop impact and surface precipitate formation. We develop a physical model to estimate the energy dissipation by the defects and predict the transition from bouncing to sticking. We demonstrate macroscopic enhancements in spray retention and surface coverage for natural and synthetic non-wetting surfaces and provide insights into designing effective agricultural sprays.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12560
