The evaporation of concentrated polymer solutions is insensitive to relative humidity

2022/11/30 by Max Huisman, Huisman, Max, Paul Digard +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Infection Control and Ventilation #Nanomaterials and Printing Technologies #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2211.16954

openalex publication_date 2022/11/30 · openalex created_date 2022/12/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A recent theory suggests that the evaporation kinetics of macromolecular solutions is insensitive to the ambient relative humidity (RH) due to the formation of a `polarisation layer' of solutes at the air-solution interface. We confirm this insensitivity up to RH~80% in the evaporation of polyvinyl alcohol solutions from open-ended capillaries. To explain the observed drop in evaporation rate at higher RH, we need to invoke compressive stresses due to interfacial polymer gelation. Moreover, RH-insensitive evaporation sets in earlier than theory predicts, suggesting a further role for a gelled `skin'. We discuss the relevance of these observations for respiratory virus transmission via aerosols.

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