68th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 22, 2015 — November 24, 2015)

P0013: Dynamics of water droplet at the nanoscale

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Authors

• Qi Liu, Department of Physics, National University of Singapore
• Fong Yew Leong, A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing
• Zainul Aabdin, Department of Physics, National University of Singapore
• Utkarsh Anand, Department of Physics, National University of Singapore
• Tran Si Bui Quang, A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing
• Utkur Mirsaidov, Department of Physics, National University of Singapore

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2015.GFM.P0013

Not often does one get to see an actual nano-sized water droplet, much less a moving one. With the transmission electron microscope, we can now visualize the dynamics of a ~20 nm water nanodroplet sliding on a silicon nitride substrate in a stick-slip manner. Attached to an equally microscopic nanoparticle, one can observe a game of capillary tug-of-war and remarkable changes in the drop shapes, switching between convex and concave forms. 

The original monochromatic EM images are contrasted here in blue, as inspired by the creative artwork of toddlers armed with ink stamps: an imagination coming alive at the smallest of length scales.