Slide electrification: charging of surfaces by moving water drops.

We investigate the charge separation caused by the motion of a water drop across a hydrophobic, insulating solid surface. Although the phenomenon of liquid charging has been consistently reported, these reports are primarily observational, results are difficult to reproduce, and no quantitative theory has been developed. In this work, we address both the experimental and theoretical sides of this problem.

Transition in the evaporation kinetics of water microdrops on hydrophilic surfaces.

We describe a technique that allows measurement of the mass and shape of sessile liquid microdrops during evaporation. Therefore, the microdrops are deposited by an inkjet onto a silicon microcantilever, and the bending and the shift in resonance frequency are monitored. From hydrophobized surfaces, microscopic water drops evaporate with the same kinetics as macroscopic drops; we verify the validity of known evaporation laws to drops with diameters from 100 microm to below 10 microm.

Nondestructive and noncontact method for determining the spring constant of rectangular cantilevers.

We present here an experimental setup and suggest an extension to the long existing added-mass method for the calibration of the spring constant of atomic force microscope cantilevers. Instead of measuring the resonance frequency shift that results from attaching particles of known masses to the end of cantilevers, we load them with water microdrops generated by a commercial inkjet dispenser. Such a device is capable of generating drops, and thus masses, of extremely reproducible size.

On the derivation of Young's equation for sessile drops: nonequilibrium effects due to evaporation.

Sessile liquid drops have a higher vapor pressure than planar liquid surfaces, as quantified by Kelvin's equation. In classical derivations of Young's equation, this fact is often not taken into account. For an open system, a sessile liquid drop is never in thermodynamic equilibrium and will eventually evaporate.

Interaction between poly(styrene-acrylic acid) latex nanoparticles and zinc oxide surfaces.

Latex particles with an average diameter of 70 nm, functionalized at the surface with carboxylic groups, are chemically coated by layer-by-layer deposition onto a spherical probe attached on an atomic force microscope cantilever. The forces between poly(styrene-acrylic acid) latex nanoparticles and differently terminated zinc oxide surfaces are studied by a homemade atomic force microscope based apparatus. The results confirmed a preferred adhesion of the latex particles to zinc-terminated ZnO faces, 0001, compared to oxygen-terminated and apolar faces.