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"Generation of Fermat’s spiral patterns by solutal Marangoni-driven coiling in an aqueous two-phase system", a paper in Nature Communications

Dec 30, 2022

Professor Anderson H.C. Shum of Department of Mechanical Engineering and his team had worked on the research for the topic “Generation of Fermat’s spiral patterns by solutal Marangoni-driven coiling in an aqueous two-phase system”. The research was recently published by Nature Communications on November 23, 2022.

 

Details of the publication:

Generation of Fermat’s spiral patterns by solutal Marangoni-driven coiling in an aqueous two-phase system

Yang Xiao, Neil M. Ribe, Yage Zhang, Yi Pan, Yang Cao & Ho Cheung Shum, Article in

Nature Communications, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34368-5

 

Abstract:

The solutal Marangoni effect is attracting increasing interest because of its fundamental role in many isothermal directional transport processes in fluids, including the Marangoni-driven spreading on liquid surfaces or Marangoni convection within a liquid. Here we report a type of continuous Marangoni transport process resulting from Marangoni-driven spreading and Marangoni convection in an aqueous two-phase system. The interaction between a salt (CaCl2) and an anionic surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate) generates surface tension gradients, which drive the transport process. This Marangoni transport consists of the upward transfer of a filament from a droplet located at the bottom of a bulk solution, coiling of the filament near the surface, and formation of Fermat’s spiral patterns on the surface. The bottom-up coiling of the filament, driven by Marangoni convection, may inspire automatic fiber fabrication.