Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 124501 (2007) [4 pages]Instabilities in Droplets Spreading on GelsReceived 31 July 2006; revised 28 February 2007; published 18 September 2007 We report a novel surface-tension driven instability observed for droplets spreading on a compliant substrate. When a droplet is released on the surface of an agar gel, it forms arms or cracks when the ratio of surface-tension gradient to gel strength is sufficiently large. We explore a range of gel strengths and droplet surface tensions and find that the onset of the instability and the number of arms depend on the ratio of surface tension to gel strength. However, the arm length grows with an apparently universal law L∝t3/4. © 2007 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.124501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.124501
PACS:
47.55.nd, 47.20.Dr, 47.20.Gv, 62.20.Mk
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