Drop Impact on Hot Plates: Contact times, Lift-off and the Lamella Rupture

When a liquid drop impacts on a heated substrate, it can remain deposited, or violently boil in contact, or lift off with or without ever touching the surface. The latter is known as the Leidenfrost effect. The duration and area of the liquid--substrate contact is highly relevant for the heat transfer, as well as other effects such as corrosion. However, most experimental studies rely on side view imaging to determine contact times, and those are often mixed with the time until the drop lifts off from the substrate. Here, we develop and validate a reliable method of contact time determination using high-speed X-ray and Total Internal Reflection measurements. We exemplarily compare contact and lift-off times on flat silicon and sapphire substrates. We show that drops can rebound even without formation of a complete vapor layer, with a wide range of lift-off times. On sapphire, we find a local minimum of lift-off times much shorter than by capillary rebound in the comparatively low-temperature regime of transition boiling / thermal atomization. We elucidate the underlying mechanism related to spontaneous rupture of the lamella and receding of the contact area.