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
Tag: Leidenfrost drops
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
Controlling Leidenfrost Drops
On a surface much hotter than their boiling point, droplets can surf on a layer of their own vapor due to the Leidenfrost effect. Recent research has shown that textured Keep reading
Aerodynamic Leidenfrost Effect
If you place a droplet on a surface much hotter than its boiling point, that droplet will skitter and float almost frictionlessly across the surface on a thin layer of Keep reading