We directly measure the rapid spreading dynamics succeeding the impact of a droplet of fluid on a solid, dry surface. Upon impact, the air separating the liquid from the solid surface fails to drain and wetting is delayed as the liquid rapidly spreads outwards over a nanometer thin film of air. We show that the approach of the spreading liquid front toward the surface is unstable and the spreading front lifts off away from the surface. Lift-off ensues well before the liquid contacts the surface, in contrast with prevailing paradigm where lift-off of the liquid is contingent on solid-liquid contact and the formation of a viscous boundary layer. Here we investigate the dynamics of liquid spreading over a thin film of air and its lift-off away from the surface over a large range of fluid viscosities and find that the lift-off instability is dependent on viscosity and occurs at a time that scales with the viscosity to the power of one half.

The application of an electric field to a suspension of charged particles can lead to the formation of patterns due to electrohydrodynamic instabilities which remain poorly understood. We elucidate this behavior by visualizing the dynamics of charged carbon black particles suspended in a nonpolar solvent in response to an electric field. As the particles are transported across a microfluidic channel, an instability occurs in which the initially uniform, rapidly advancing particle front develops fingers. Furthermore, when the direction of the applied field is repeatedly switched, the particles localize into a remarkably well-defined periodic pattern which reflects an interplay between the fingering instability and particle diffusion.

Drops are well known to rebound from superhydrophobic surfaces and from liquid surfaces. Here, we show that drops can also rebound from a superhydrophilic solid surface such as an atomically smooth mica sheet. However, the coefficient of restitution CR associated with this process is significantly lower than that associated with rebound from superhydrophobic surfaces. A direct imaging method allows us to characterize the dynamics of the deformation of the drop in entering the vicinity of the surface. We find that drop bouncing occurs without the drop ever touching the solid and there is a nanometer-scale film of air that separates the liquid and solid, suggesting that shear in the air film is the dominant source of dissipation during rebound. Furthermore, we see that any discrete nanometer-height defects on an otherwise hydrophilic surface, such as treated glass, completely inhibits the bouncing of the drop, causing the liquid to wet the surface. Our study adds a new facet to the dynamics of droplet impact by emphasizing that the thin film of air can play a role not just in the context of splashing but also bouncing, while highlighting the role of rare surface defects in inhibiting this response.