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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Universality of breath figures on two-dimensional surfaces: An experimental study

L. Stricker1, F. Grillo2, E. A. Marquez3, G. Panzarasa4, K. Smith-Mannschott5, and J. Vollmer6

  • 1ETH Zürich, Department of Materials, Soft Materials, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 2ETH Zürich, Department of Materials, Soft Materials and Interfaces, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 3KU Leuven, Department of Chemistry, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
  • 4ETH Zürich, Institute of Building Materials, Wood Materials Science, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 5ETH Zürich, Department of Materials, Soft and Living Materials, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 6University of Leipzig, Institute of Theoretical Physics, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012019 – Published 16 February, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L012019

Abstract

Droplet condensation on surfaces produces patterns, called breath figures. Their evolution into self-similar structures is a classical example of self-organization. It is described by a scaling theory with scaling functions whose universality has recently been challenged by numerical work. Here, we provide thorough experimental testing, where we inspect substrates with vastly different chemical properties, stiffness, and condensation rates. We critically survey the size distributions and the related time-asymptotic scaling of droplet number and surface coverage. In the time-asymptotic regime, they admit a data collapse: the data for all substrates and condensation rates lie on universal scaling functions.

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012019– Published 16 February, 2022
  • Received 3 September 2020
  • Accepted 24 January 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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