Physical Review Journal Club: Electrostatics Slows Down the Breakup of Liquid Bridges on Solid Surfaces
Thursday, June 25, 2026
11 a.m. ET, 3 p.m. GMT, 5 p.m. CET
Video Link
The Physical Review Journal Club is back, this time for a discussion with author Salar Farrokhi (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany), presenting the recently published Physical Review Fluids paper “Electrostatics Slows Down the Breakup of Liquid Bridges on Solid Surfaces.”
After the presentation, the author will answer questions from the audience in a live Q&A session, moderated by Sofia Angriman (Institut de Physique de Nice). Registration is free and a video recording will be provided to all registrants.
Summary:
In this paper, the authors use microfluidic experiments to show that previously overlooked electrostatic effects can affect capillary wetting instability.
By measuring the breakup of viscous wetting liquid bridges on conductive and nonconductive substrates, they show that spontaneous charging creates additional contact line dissipation, slowing down the breakup dynamics and leading to the spontaneous motion of satellite droplets after breakup. The experimental results are consistent with slide electrification theory, which predicts a maximum in contact line dissipation at a Péclet number of ≈ 1.15. This paper opens new perspectives by highlighting the importance of electrostatic effects on dewetting processes beyond sliding drops.
Read ahead:
Electrostatics Slows Down the Breakup of Liquid Bridges on Solid Surfaces
Salar Jabbary Farrokhi, Aaron D. Ratschow, and Steffen Hardt
Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 054002
