Overcoming Rayleigh–Plateau instabilities: Stabilizing and destabilizing liquid-metal streams via electrochemical oxidation

Liquids typically form droplets when exiting a nozzle. Jets—cylindrical streams of fluid—can form transiently at higher fluid velocities, yet interfacial tension rapidly drives jet breakup into droplets via the Rayleigh–Plateau instability. Liquid metal is an unlikely candidate to form stable jets s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2020-08, Vol.117 (32), p.19026-19032
Main Authors: Song, Minyung, Kartawira, Karin, Hillaire, Keith D., Li, Cheng, Eaker, Collin B., Kiani, Abolfazl, Daniels, Karen E., Dickey, Michael D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Droplets
Electrochemical oxidation
Electrochemistry
Liquid metals
Metals
Nozzles
Oxidation
Physical Sciences
Room temperature
Streams
Surface tension
Tension
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Liquids typically form droplets when exiting a nozzle. Jets—cylindrical streams of fluid—can form transiently at higher fluid velocities, yet interfacial tension rapidly drives jet breakup into droplets via the Rayleigh–Plateau instability. Liquid metal is an unlikely candidate to form stable jets since it has enormous interfacial tension and low viscosity. We report that electrochemical anodization significantly lowers the effective tension of a stream of metal, transitioning it from droplets to long (long lifetime and length) wires with 100-μm diameters without the need for high velocities. Whereas surface minimization drives Rayleigh–Plateau instabilities, these streams of metal increase in surface area when laid flat upon a surface due to the low tension. The ability to tune interfacial tension over at least three orders of magnitude using modest potential (
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2006122117