Evaporation of Microdroplets of Three Alcohols

The evaporation of small droplets of water resting on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) has previously been shown to be dominated by an initial stage with constant contact radius and an almost linear decrease in contact angle and height. The time and contact radii dependencies were found to be in good agreement with a model based on diffusion. This letter reports the evaporation of small droplets of n-decanol, n-hexanol, and n-propanol resting on Teflon tape (polytetrafluoroethylene). Such systems provide much greater evaporation rates with some droplets completing the process in 1−2 s compared to minutes for the water on PMMA system