# gst: when volatile droplets dance across a surface erratically (along random trajectories)

<< When a drop of a volatile liquid is deposited on a uniformly heated wettable, thermally conducting substrate, one expects to see it spread into a thin film and evaporate. >>️

<< Contrary to this intuition, due to thermal Marangoni contraction, the deposited drop contracts into a spherical-cap-shaped puddle, with a finite apparent contact angle. Strikingly, this contracted droplet, above a threshold temperature, well below the boiling point of the liquid, starts to spontaneously move on the substrate in an apparently erratic way. >>️

Pallav Kant, Mathieu Souzy, et al. Autothermotaxis of volatile drops. Phys. Rev. Fluids 9, L012001. Jan 31, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.9.L012001

Rachel Berkowitz. Hot Surfaces Make Droplets Move Erratically. Physics 17, s14. Jan 31, 2024. 

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s14 

Also: drop, bubble, erratic

in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: gst, drop, bubble, erratic, thermotaxis, autothermotaxis