Fingering Instabilities in Dewetting Nanofluids

E. Pauliac-Vaujour, A. Stannard, C. P. Martin, M. O. Blunt, I. Notingher, P. J. Moriarty, I. Vancea, and U. Thiele
Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 176102 – Published 30 April 2008
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Abstract

The growth of fingering patterns in dewetting nanofluids (colloidal solutions of thiol-passivated gold nanoparticles) has been followed in real time using contrast-enhanced video microscopy. The fingering instability on which we focus here arises from evaporatively driven nucleation and growth in a nanoscopically thin precursor solvent film behind the macroscopic contact line. We find that well-developed isotropic fingering structures only form for a narrow range of experimental parameters. Numerical simulations, based on a modification of the Monte Carlo approach introduced by Rabani et al. [Nature (London) 426, 271 (2003)], reproduce the patterns we observe experimentally.

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  • Received 18 January 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.176102

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

E. Pauliac-Vaujour, A. Stannard, C. P. Martin, M. O. Blunt, I. Notingher, and P. J. Moriarty

  • The School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

I. Vancea and U. Thiele

  • School of Mathematics, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, United Kingdom
  • Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 17 — 2 May 2008

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