Nanoparticle motion on the surface of drying droplets

Mingfei Zhao and Xin Yong
Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 034201 – Published 28 March 2018
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Abstract

Advances in solution-based printing and surface patterning techniques for additive manufacturing demand a clear understanding of particle dynamics in drying colloidal droplets and its relationship with deposit structure. Although the evaporation-driven deposition has been studied thoroughly for the particles dispersed in the bulk of the droplet, few investigations have focused on the particles strongly adsorbed to the droplet surface. We modeled the assembly and deposition of the surface-active particles in a drying sessile droplet with a pinned contact line by the multiphase lattice Boltzmann-Brownian dynamics method. The particle trajectory and its area density profile characterize the assembly dynamics and deposition pattern development during evaporation. While the bulk-dispersed particles continuously move to the contact line, forming the typical “coffee-ring” deposit, the interface-bound particles migrate first toward the apex and then to the contact line as the droplet dries out. To understand this unexpected behavior, we resolve the droplet velocity field both in the bulk and within the interfacial region. The simulation results agree well with the analytical solution for the Stokes flow inside an evaporating droplet. At different stages of evaporation, our study reveals that the competition between the tangential surface flow and the downward motion of the evaporating liquid-vapor interface governs the dynamics of the interface-bound particles. In particular, the interface displacement contributes to the particle motion toward the droplet apex in a short phase, while the outward advective flow prevails at the late stage of drying and carries the particles to the contact line. The final deposit of the surface-adsorbed particles exhibits a density enhancement at the center, in addition to a coffee ring. Despite its small influence on the final deposit in the present study, the distinct dynamics of surface-active particles due to the interfacial confinement could offer a new route to deposition control when combined with Marangoni effects.

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  • Received 13 December 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.034201

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Fluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Mingfei Zhao and Xin Yong*

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA

  • *xyong@binghamton.edu

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Issue

Vol. 3, Iss. 3 — March 2018

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