Crystal Critters

Crystal Critters Samantha McBride, MIT Henri-Louis Girard, MIT Kripa Varanasi, MIT DOI: When a drop of salty water is evaporated on a hydrophobic surface, “salt globes” that mirror the shape of the drop grow. Here, we present an unusual phenomenon in which salt globes grown from an evaporating drop on a heated superhydrophobic surface proceed to self-eject from that surface via growth of crystalline tubules. A large temperature gradient concentrates vaporiza