Thermally induced non-coalescence of compound droplets

Compound droplets surrounded by a gaseous phase with different temperatures widely exist in industrial applications. Previous research has focused on thermally induced non-coalescence or delayed coalescence between two single-phase droplets or a droplet and a liquid bath. The primary mechanism is the levitated intervening pressure in the lubricating air layer between droplets, which is caused by the thermocapillary convection. In this study, the non-coalescence of two compound droplets in a cold ambient air environment is experimentally investigated. The thermocapillary mechanism manifests three distinct features. First, as the two compound droplets approach each other, the temperature of the contact side of each droplet increases because of reduced heat loss, a phenomenon termed as the contact-side heating effect. This creates a surface temperature gradient, inducing Marangoni stress and subsequent surface convection. Second, owing to the immiscibility of the two phases within each compound droplet, the thermocapillary convection develops independently in each phase, forming independent convection which cannot be observed in single-phase droplets. It was observed that the directions of the thermocapillary convection within the two droplets were correlated and always planar symmetric, which is different from the uncorrelated and opposite convection of two single-phase droplets. Third and most importantly, the thermocapillary convection in the oil phase entrains the air into the lubricating film between droplets, inhibiting their coalescence only when the oil/water interface is adjacent to the contact zone.