Evaporative Crystallization of Spirals

Spiral motifs are pervasive in nature, art, and technology due to their functional property of providing compact length. Nature is particularly adept at spiral patterning, and yet, the spirals observed in seashells, hurricanes, rams' horns, flower petals, etc. all evolve via disparate physical mechanisms. Here, we present a mechanism for the self-guided formation of spirals from evaporating saline drops via a coupling of crystallization and contact line dynamics. These patterns are in contrast to commonly observed patterns from evaporation of colloidal drops, which are discrete (rings, concentric rings) or continuous (clumps, uniform deposits) depending on the particle shape, contact line dynamics, and evaporation rate. Unlike the typical process of drop evaporation where the contact line moves radially inward, here, a thin film pinned by a ring of crystals ruptures radially outward. This motion is accompanied by a nonuniform pinning of the contact line due to crystallization, which generates a continuous propagation of pinning and depinning events to form a spiral. By comparing the relevant timescales of evaporation and diffusion, we show that a single dimensionless number can predict the occurrence of these patterns. These insights on self-guided crystallization of spirals could be used to create compact length templates.