Evaporation of an Ouzo drop

Researchers revealed the four different phases of the evaporation of an Ouzo droplet. Ouzo is a transparent alcoholic beverage consisting of water, alcohol and anise oil. In a drop, alcohol starts evaporating first, leaving more water and creating the “Ouzo effect” - liquid has a milky appearance due to a decrease in oil solubility. After all alcohol has evaporated, and the liquid is transparent again and water evaporates leaving a tiny drop of anise oil.

Credit:
Evaporation-triggered microdroplet nucleation and the four life phases of an evaporating Ouzo drop
Huanshu Tan, Christian Diddens, Pengyu Lv, J. G. M. Kuerten, Xuehua Zhang, and Detlef Lohse
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1602260113