Mechanical Tuning of the Evaporation Rate of Liquidon Crossed Fibers.

Weinvestigate experimentally the drying of a small volume of perfectlywetting liquid on two crossed fibers. We characterize the drying dynamicsfor the three liquid morphologies that are encountered in this geometry:drop, column, and a mixed morphology, in which a drop and a column coexist. Foreach morphology, we rationalize our findings with theoretical modelsthat capture the drying kinetics. We find that the evaporation ratesignificantly depends upon the liquid morphology and that the dryingof the liquid column is faster than the evaporation of the drop andthe mixed morphology for a given liquid volume. Finally, we illustratethat shearing a network of fibers reduces the angle between them,changes the morphology toward the column state, and therefore, enhancesthe drying rate of a volatile liquid deposited on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]