Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.111, No.45, 13020-13027, 2007
Evaporation of femtoliter sessile droplets monitored with nanomechanical mass sensors
We present a time-resolved study of the evaporation in air of minuscule sessile droplets deposited by nanodispensing techniques. Highly sensitive nanomechanical resonators are designed to monitor in time the mass variation of evaporating liquid droplets. The precision of the measurement setup enables the study of droplets with diameters in the 1 mu m range, which correspond to volumes of femtoliters and smaller, 9 orders of magnitude smaller than most of presently published data. Experimental data are compared with macroscopic models.