Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 10: Droplets, Wetting, and Microfluidics (joint session DY/CPP)

CPP 10.1: Talk

Monday, March 9, 2026, 15:00–15:15, ZEU/0118

Rayleigh instability in the presence of elastocapillarity — •Niphredil Klint and Andreas Isacsson — Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

A liquid jet, such as a stream of water, will disintegrate and form droplets if the length-to-radius ratio exceeds a critical value. This occurs due to propagating surface instabilities, a phenomenon known classically as the Rayleigh instability. At the nanoscale, thermal fluctuations affect the breakup dynamics, which may enter a stochastic regime [1]. Placing an elongated nanoscale liquid drop with a high aspect ratio on top of a highly compliant surface, the breakup process is affected by additional noise from thermally excited flexural phonons [2] as well as effects whereby the wetting causes the underlying surface to deform. We use large scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to examine the dynamics of the Rayleigh instability in the presence of elastocapillary effects at ambient temperatures. Specifically, we study the interactions between water and suspended graphene, where wetting induced deformations may occur for nanoscale droplets [3]. We focus on characterising the breakup and instability wavelength and isolate the effects of introducing graphene through a comparison of these results to simulations of only water. We also identify the correlation between out-of-plane fluctuations of the graphene and the concentration of water.

[1] J. Eggers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 084502 (2002).

[2] M. Ma et al., Nature Mater. 15, 66 (2016).

[3] M. Kateb et al, Langmuir 39, 12610 (2023).

Keywords: Rayleigh instability; Graphene; Elastocapillarity; Breakup; Wetting