KAIST Demonstrates Marangoni-Driven Liquid Film Clings to Ceiling
A team at KAIST in South Korea has demonstrated a method to keep liquids from dripping when applied to overhead surfaces, using the Marangoni effect with volatile liquids. The work riffs on a famous anecdote about Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, where gravity was described as a form of “torture” for the artist.
The researchers leveraged the Marangoni effect, which drives liquid flow when there are differences in surface tension across a liquid’s surface. By incorporating a volatile component that evaporates, they create a surface-tension gradient that can counteract gravity and help a liquid film cling to a ceiling rather than run off.
In experiments with a thin water layer, the liquid naturally formed droplets that fell due to gravity. When the volatile component was mixed in, the team observed the formation of a flat, uniform thin film that remained attached to the ceiling instead of drooping or dripping.
The researchers say the technique could find use in high-precision printing of electronic circuits and in fluid-control technologies for space environments, where managing liquids in microgravity is a key challenge.
The work was led by KAIST’s mechanical engineering department, including Professor Kim and PhD candidate Minwoo Choi, who described the approach as bridging surface science and microfluidics to address gravity’s grip on liquids.
KAIST stands for the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, based in Daejeon, South Korea. The institution is known for its engineering and applied science research, including interdisciplinary work on fluids and coatings.
For U.S. readers, the development matters because it touches on potential advances in precision electronics manufacturing, coating technologies for complex geometries, and fluid management in space missions. If scalable, the method could influence how coatings are applied on vertical or inverted surfaces and improve fluid handling in microgravity-based manufacturing and research.