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In Retrospect

Twenty years of drying droplets

Nature volume 550, pages 466–467 (2017)Cite this article

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When a particle-laden droplet evaporates on a solid surface, the particles form a ring-like deposit. The explanation for this phenomenon, provided in 1997, has led to advances in many areas of science and engineering.

Why does a drying droplet, such as a spilt drop of coffee, leave a circular ring as its residue, rather than a uniform spot? Twenty years ago this month, Deegan et al.1 published a paper in Nature that explained this commonly observed phenomenon, which is known as the coffee-ring effect. Their results, and the broad interest in and applications of the effect, have spawned thousands of publications, and advances including potential improvements to ink-jet printing2, methods of patterning surfaces3 and techniques for disease detection4.

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Figure 1: The coffee-ring effect.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109-2800, Michigan, USA

    Ronald G. Larson

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  1. Ronald G. Larson
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Correspondence to Ronald G. Larson.

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Larson, R. Twenty years of drying droplets. Nature 550, 466–467 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/550466a

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