Hot liquid metal drops impacting onto a cold substrate solidify during their subsequent spreading. Here we experimentally study the influence of solidification on the outcome of an impact event. Liquid tin drops are impacted onto sapphire substrates of varying temperature. The impact is visualised both from the side and from below, which provides a unique view on the solidification process. During spreading, an intriguing pattern of radial ligaments rapidly solidifies from the centre of the drop. This pattern determines the late-time morphology of the splat. A quantitative analysis of the drop spreading and ligament formation is supported by scaling arguments. Finally, a phase diagram for drop bouncing, deposition and splashing as a function of substrate temperature and impact velocity is provided.

When two liquids with different surface tensions come into contact, the liquid with lower surface tension spreads over the other liquid. This Marangoni-driven spreading has been studied for various geometries and surfactants, but the dynamics of miscible liquids in the binary geometry (drop–drop) has hardly been investigated. Here we use stroboscopic illumination by nanosecond laser pulses to temporally resolve the distance L(t) over which a low-surface-tension drop spreads over a miscible high-surface-tension drop. L(t) is measured as a function of time, t, for various surface tension differences between the liquids and for various viscosities, revealing a power-law L(t) ∼ t^α with a spreading exponent α ≈ 0.75. This value is consistent with previous results for viscosity-limited spreading over a deep bath. The universal power law ∝ ^3/4 that describes the dimensionless distance as a function of the dimensionless time reasonably captures our experiments, as well as previous experiments for different geometries, miscibilities, and surface tension modifiers (solvents and surfactants). The range of this power law remarkably covers ten orders of magnitude in dimensionless time. This result enables engineering of drop encapsulation for various liquid–liquid systems.

When a droplet is brought in contact with an undercooled surface, it wets the substrate and solidifies at the same time. The interplay between the phase transition effects and the contact-line motion, leading to its arrest, remains poorly understood. Here we reveal the early solidification patterns and dynamics of spreading hexadecane droplets. Total internal reflection imaging is employed to temporally and spatially resolve the early solidification behavior. With this, we determine the conditions leading to the contact-line arrest. We quantify the overall nucleation behavior, i.e., the nucleation rate and the crystal growth speed and show its sensitivity to the applied undercooling of the substrate. We also show that for strong enough undercooling it is the rapid growth of the crystals which determines the eventual arrest of the spreading contact line. By combining the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov nucleation theory and scaling relations for the spreading, we calculate the temporal evolution of the solid area fraction, which is in good agreement with our observations.

Occupational exposure to airborne dust is responsible for numerous respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Because of these hazards, air samples are regularly collected on filters and sent for laboratory analysis to ensure compliance with regulations. Unfortunately, this approach often takes weeks to provide a result, which makes it impossible to identify dust sources or protect workers in real time. To address these challenges, we developed a system that characterizes airborne dust by its spectro-chemical profile. In this device, a micro-cyclone concentrates particles from the air and introduces them into a hollow waveguide where an infrared signature is obtained. An algorithm is then used to quantitate the composition of respirable particles by incorporating the infrared features of the most relevant chemical groups and compensating for Mie scattering. With this approach, the system can successfully differentiate mixtures of inorganic materials associated with construction sites in near-real time. The use of a free-space optic assembly improves the light throughput significantly, which enables detection limits of approximately 10 µg/m³ with a 10 minute sampling time. While respirable crystalline silica was the focus of this work, it is hoped that the flexibility of the platform will enable different aerosols to be detected in other occupational settings.

When a droplet is brought in contact with an undercooled surface, it wets the substrate and solidifies at the same time. The interplay between the phase transition effects and the contact-line motion, leading to its arrest, remains poorly understood. Here we reveal the early solidification patterns and dynamics of spreading hexadecane droplets. Total internal reflection (TIR) imaging is employed to temporally and spatially resolve the early solidification behaviour. With this, we determine the conditions leading to the contact-line arrest. We quantify the overall nucleation behaviour, \textit{i.e.} the nucleation rate and the crystal growth speed, and show its sensitivity to the applied undercooling of the substrate. By combining the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov nucleation theory and scaling relations for the spreading, we can calculate the temporal evolution of the solid area fraction, which is in good agreement with our observations. We also show that for strong enough undercooling it is the rapid growth of the crystals which determines the eventual arrest of the spreading contact line.