On a hot surface, droplets can float on a layer of their own vapor and vibrate in star-like shapes. These so-called Leidenfrost stars also make noise, with distinct beats that Keep reading
Tag: Leidenfrost drops
Jets Beneath Leidenfrost Drops
When a droplet impacts, it’s not unusual for converging ripples to form an upward jet, like the one seen here. But under the right circumstances, jets can form downward, too. Keep reading
The Vortex Beneath a Drop
While we’re most used to seeing levitating Leidenfrost droplets on a solid surface, such drops can also form above a liquid bath. In fact, the smoothness of the bath’s surface, Keep reading
Mixing Leidenfrost Drops
When placed on a very hot, patterned surface, droplets will self-propel on a layer of their own vapor. Here, researchers use this to drive droplets to coalesce so that they Keep reading
Kicking Droplets
Moving the surface a droplet sits on creates some interesting dynamics, especially if the surface is hydrophobic. That’s what we see here with these droplets launched off an impulsively-moved plate. Keep reading
Leidenfrost Stars
Atop a very hot surface, liquids can instantly vaporize, leaving a drop levitating on a layer of its own vapor. These Leidenfrost droplets demonstrate all kinds of interesting behaviors, including self-propulsion, explosion, and star-shaped Keep reading
The Leidenfrost Crack
In 1756, Leidenfrost reported on the peculiar behaviors of droplets on surface much hotter than the liquid’s boiling point. Such droplets were highly mobile, surfing on a thin layer of Keep reading
Exploding a Drop
Leidenfrost drops levitate over a hot substrate on a thin layer of their own vapor, constantly replenished as the drop evaporates. For the most part, previous studies have focused on Keep reading
Wheeling Drops
Leidenfrost drops – which skitter almost frictionlessly across extremely hot surfaces on a thin layer of their own vapor – are notoriously mobile. We’ve seen numerous methods of controlling their Keep reading
A Star Drop
There are many ways to make a droplet oscillate in a star-shape – like vibrating its surface or using acoustic waves to excite it – but these methods involve externally Keep reading