Surface Tension

The patterns that can be produced by a fluid, like oil or water, on a non-stick surface will depend upon the amount of liquid and how much the liquid is repelled from the surface.

If you can adjust the level of stickiness or, in other words, control the surface tension, you can control the type of pattern that is formed. The researcher in this case, using fluorescent particles, was able to arrange the particles in tree-like formations where each limit contains thousands of the particles arranged in rows. While the arrangement of the particles can be seen, each of the individual particles is too small to be observed with your eye.

However, the type of pattern that is formed is related to the strength of the interactions of the liquid in which the particles are dispersed and the surface of the underlying support.

D. Nykypanchuk, University of Massachusetts Amherst