Temperature dependence of the evaporation coefficient of water in air and nitrogen under atmospheric pressure: Study in water droplets

The evaporation coefficients of water in air and nitrogen were found as a function of temperature by studying the evaporation of a pure water droplet. The droplet was levitated in an electrodynamic trap placed in a climatic chamber maintaining atmospheric pressure. Droplet radius evolution and evaporation dynamics were studied with high precision by analyzing the angle-resolved light scattering Mie interference patterns. A model of quasi-stationary droplet evolution accounting for the kinetic effects near the droplet surface was applied. In particular, the effect of thermal effusion (a short-range analogue of thermal diffusion) was discussed and accounted for. The evaporation coefficient alpha in air and in nitrogen were found to be equal. The alpha was found to decrease from similar to 0.18 to similar to 0.13 for the temperature range from 273.1 to 293.1 K and follow the trend given by the Arrhenius formula. The agreement with condensation coefficient values obtained with an essentially different method by Li et al. [Li, Y.; Davidovits, P.; Shi, Q.; Jayne, J.; Kolb, C.; Worsnop, D. J. Phys. Chem. A. 2001, 105, 10627] was found to be excellent. The comparison of experimental conditions used in both methods revealed no dependence of the evaporation/condensation coefficient on the droplet charge nor the ambient gas pressure within the experimental parameters range. The average value of the thermal accommodation coefficient over the same temperature range was found to be 1 +/- 0.05.