Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Abstract:
The stability and geometry of two immiscible liquid drops resting on a non- wetting solid substrate (polypropylene- abbreviated as pp) are studied. The problem is a very simple situation of a non-miscible two-phase liquid system. The experimental observation of a micro drop of distilled water, tap water, salted water, acetone, benzene, cyclohexane, ethanol, n-heptane, nitrobenzene, glycerol or isopropylbenzene on top of a mercury drop resting on pp substrate is discussed, and the static situation of the drops is explored. It is found that there is a complete encapsulation of the mercury drop by only a drop of water (distilled, tap and salted) and glycerol , that depends on the volume of the droplets and the surface tension value of the upper drop. A drop of the rest of the mentioned liquids on Hg drop spreads, and so an unstable configuration, with no encapsulation, is obtained.

Keywords: surface chemistry, two drop system, wetting, surface tension.

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