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
Tag: Leidenfrost effect
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
Drops That Dig
On extremely hot surfaces, droplets will skitter on a layer of their own vapor, thanks to the Leidenfrost effect. This keeps the liquid insulated from contact with the hot surface. But 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
Fizzy Droplets
Leidenfrost drops surf on a layer of their own vapor, created by the high temperature of a nearby surface relative to their boiling point. These Leidenfrost drops can self-propel and Keep reading
Swirling Polygons
We don’t usually think of fluids forming corners, but they can. Here you see liquid nitrogen in a simple pot. Since the pot is much hotter than the boiling point 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
Lava Bomb
What you see above is a homemade lava bomb. To systematically study what happens when groundwater meets lava, scientists melted basalt and created their own meter-scale explosion-on-demand. Inside the container, 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