A ballet of droplets

01 June 2015

The spreading of liquids on water can lead to complex drop assemblies, but none so far exhibits coordinated dynamics. We observe a ballet of insoluble oil drops evolving over time from linear to hexagonal arrays on water surface, due to wetting transition and oil evaporation. A new form of complex dynamic droplet/surface film interaction has been unveiled. This simple physico-chemical system may help understand collective animal (and human) movements.

Check ou last article in Nature Communications:

The evolution of spatial ordering of oil drops fast spreading on a water surface
Yamamoto, D. ; Nakajima, C. ; Shioi, A. ; Krafft, M.-P. ; Yoshikawa, K.
Nature Commun., 2015, 6, 7189.