Freely receding evaporating droplets

The evaporation rate of drops of pure, completely wetting liquids is investigated experimentally and theoretically in the situation where no pinning of the contact line is occurring. It is shown that the observed dynamics is controlled by the volatility of the liquid, as expected, but also by the properties of the wetting film left on the substrate. Contact line instabilities and nonmonotonic behavior of the receding contact angle may be observed and are accounted for. However, the water still needs further investigations.