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Confined drying of a binary liquid mixture droplet: A quantitative interferometric study under humidity control

Ole Milark1, Jean-Baptiste Salmon2, and Benjamin Sobac1,*

  • *Contact author: benjamin.sobac@cnrs.fr
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 033603 – Published 6 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9zdm-drvp

Abstract

We present a methodology that combines Mach-Zehnder interferometry, a custom relative humidity (RH) controlled chamber, and a confined two-dimensional droplet geometry to enable precise investigations of drying of complex fluids and the associated transport mechanisms. This approach is applied to a model binary mixture, water-glycerol, the concentration-dependent thermodynamic and transport properties of which are relatively well documented. High-resolution interferometric imaging (6µmpixel−1, 1 frames−1) allows simultaneous measurement of drying kinetics and internal concentration fields with ±0.5% accuracy, characterized here over a wide range of RH (25–95%), and thus Péclet numbers. The experimental results closely match a quasisteady, isothermal model of vapor-diffusion-controlled evaporation coupled to diffusion within the droplet. These data enable extraction of both the concentration-dependent mutual diffusion coefficient D(φ) and the water chemical activity aw(φ) over almost the entire range of glycerol volume fraction φ, even from a single low-RH experiment. While aw(φ) agrees well with literature values, our measurements yield a consistent fit for D(φ). Complementary experiments with fluorescence microscopy confirm that buoyancy-driven convection, although present, remains negligible, so that mass diffusion dominates solute transport in this confined geometry. The overall agreement validates the methodology, demonstrating its robustness as a quantitative framework for probing drying dynamics and transport in complex fluids, with broad applicability to controlled evaporation studies.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 033603– Published 6 March, 2026
  • Received 8 December 2025
  • Accepted 28 January 2026
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