Time-Resolved Measurements of the Evaporation of Volatile Components from Single Aerosol Droplets

A strategy for examining the dynamic hygroscopic response of single aerosol particles is reported, allowing a direct investigation of the interplay of thermodynamic and kinetic factors regulating the time dependence of particle size. In particular, we investigate the rapid evaporation of water from water–glycerol droplets, measuring the evolving size with a time resolution of <10 ms (with as low as 2.5 ms being possible) over a time range from subsecond to many hours. Measurements can be made on sequential droplets generated from a droplet-on-demand generator, and a reproducibility of better than ±0.25 μm in droplet size over tens of events can be achieved at any resolved time point considered during an evaporation process lasting >2 s. The time-dependent measurements of evolving droplet size are compared with an analytical treatment of the evaporation process. Excellent agreement between measurements and simulations is found over a wide range of starting droplet compositions. The benefits of using this approach for investigating water transport within the bulk of an aerosol particle or to/from the droplet surface are discussed.